


Dance for me

by earltealord



Category: FFXV - Fandom, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, I like clueless Noctis fics so I wrote my own, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, dancer!prompto, implied cindnea, implied ravnis, lunyx will probably be in here somewhere idk, odorite!Prompto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-11-28 04:45:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11410485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earltealord/pseuds/earltealord
Summary: An Au where Prompto uploads his dances online, is really popular in the community, but he hides his face so no one knows who he is.Shortly after their graduation, Noct find his page, not aware that it's him and Noct develops a crush for the masked dancer.





	1. Prologue

Prompto had started uploading his first video. He had found a really niche website that hosted a bunch of other people dancing to Jpop, Kpop, and other music that had some pretty intense choreography. He found it really cool and started looking up videos on YouTube to learn the exact choreography that the dancers in the video were doing. He had fumbled a bit at first, but he learned quickly, he had filmed himself dancing to one of the songs he found himself humming daily.

He had quickly downloaded the song onto his phone and almost played it on repeat for an entire week. He thought he would get sick of it, but that wasn’t really the case. He found himself dancing slightly to the music and after he was done doing chores around the house or doing his running for the day, he would get back to learning the moves. The dance was quite simple after he got it down to a few basic parts, dancing to the music was a little harder to do, though, once he put it into practice trying to time the moves with the song’s rhythm. It was a bit of a learning curve but with days of practice he finally got the nerve to film himself.

Well, a bit of a nerve, Prompto was still in high school and he really still was self-conscious about making himself stand out. To prevent that he decided to put a mask on to cover his face while doing the dance, it was something he saw other dancers do, but most had a convenient medical type face mask to cover themselves with. Prompto only had this stupid Kamen Rider mask he had bought off eBay at his disposal, he had justified the purpose at the time, saying that it looked cool, it was really coming in handy now.

After he was done doing minor edits to the video-his photography classes really paying off now- he overlaid the song onto of the video, and went to create his profile to put the video up. Prompto wasn’t really good at creating usernames, most of his social media accounts had some variation of his name, but he was really sticking to the idea of anonymity with this website. He didn’t need people approaching him and his best friend, Noctis, asking about some dude with his name and a stupid mask dancing to a stupid weeby song. He didn’t want to embarrass Noct for being friends with him, so he went about deciding some stupid name to go along with the whole thing. He settled on the username P-to it probably wasn’t creative in anyway, but it kinda made him sound like he was a robot. He liked it and it was gonna be hard for anyone to decipher how to get his name from that. That is, if they ever found out it was him in the first place.

The video was taking it’s sweet time-damn his shitty internet-it was about 75% done with the processing phase and he just wanted to hit submit, after adding all the necessary tags and title and other ridiculous ‘please don’t hurt me, i’m new to this’ pleas in the description. It was getting late and he had school the next day, he didn’t wanna wait until 1am for this thing to upload. He sighed and set it to publish once it was done with the final processing, he was sure no one was going to watch it anyway, the whole idea of become a dancer online was stupid. But it seemed fun to him and he wanted to join in on that fun, so it brought him to this.

He took off his glasses and set them on the bedside table, setting his laptop on the table as well, laying down, and curling up in his blankets. Whatever happens now, happens, there was no turning back from this. He pulled out his phone, still connected to the charging cable, and started scrolling through social media, trying to take his mind off the slew of comments he’d probably receive in the morning. It was dumb to worry about, because if anything, no one would pay attention to a video of a dance that had been done a hundred times before, and it really seemed like you needed a community to have comments on the website he was using. That didn’t mean he wasn’t still scared of the backlash that was waiting for him on the other side of that video. He inhaled deep and set his phone aside, rolling to face the wall and starting to let himself fall asleep.

When he awoke, he had about 20 different notifications from the website. It was an automatic email letting him know of comments and subscribers and one letting him know his video was ready. Instead getting out of bed right away, he scrolled through the comments. Most of them were calling him ‘cute’ kidlike, for wearing the stupid mask, others were saying how good the dance was, despite him being a beginner. The comments weren't negative, he didn't see one bad comment on here. He still was getting more as he scrolled and there was a slight shift of people wondering why the mask, but no one pressed him. There were others asking if he could dance to other songs that he's watched on here, and few he hadn't.

When he had noticed the clock turn over to 7am he quickly jumped out of bed and headed for the shower. The comments had put him a good mood and he was already excited to build his little community. He had suggestions for his next dance, so there wasn’t that stressor, but he had seen others dance in cute scenery and awe inspiring landmarks.If he was going to be serious about this he was going to do this right. He had decided on his way to school and back he would try to scope out a good background for his next video, so he didn’t have to keep using his backyard, there were a lot around town he just needed to settle.

Realistically, since he was planning on going along with this, he could use them all. Different backgrounds for different videos, he smiled to himself, yes that's exactly what he was going to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little spur of the moment fic, I don't know if anyone else had this experience growing up, but I used to be into learning Vocaloid dancers and was totally into watching the Odorites (as they're called in Japan) dance to some of my Favorite songs. I say this is spur of the moment because my friend and I started developing this au just this past weekend, and I loved it a lot and thought to share it with you all.  
> A little fun fact, Prompto's first dance was totally Luka Luka Night Fever!
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments! or come talk to me about on Tumblr @earltealord
> 
> Thanks so much for reading~


	2. Hello/How Are You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto is expanding his group, luckily he knows people to help him out

Prompto was surprised, to say the least, when he got a very overjoyed email saying that his page had reached over 500,000 followers. He honestly, couldn't believe it himself.

It had been a little over a year and he had built his community so much that it continued to skyrocket. In the past year, he had only been found out by one person, but she was a close friend and former classmate of his. Cindy Aurum, a cute blond he knew from since middle school and high school before she graduated, had seen him dancing in the park to a slower, cute song, named, Hello/How are you that a commenter had suggested. She had called out to him, but he didn't realized this at first, she was using his handle, but pronouncing it wrong, instead of ‘P-2’ like he meant, apparently there were people calling ‘Pee-toe’ which took him off guard, making it sound weirdly cute.

When she finally just said, “Hey you with the mask!” Prompto had turned to her and was giving her his full attention.

“I've seen your videos online,” he remembered her drawling out, the southern accent sticking with her even though she had moved to the city when she was young. “I reckon we should do a duet sometime.” she continued on smiling at him.

This took him off guard, he hadn't spoken to Cindy in so long, so he took off the mask to speak, immediately and her face lit up so fast. “Prompto?!” she half yelled, going to hug him, “I have seen you in forever! I didn't know you were into this scene.”

Prompto remembered smiling and telling her about the spur of the moment decision he made and how he got this far. She shared with him that she also danced, hence the duet comment, her handle was “CiCi” something short a sweet, and something that rolled off the tongue. She laughed and told him how there was a 50/50 debate going on how to pronounce his handle, but it was a little too late to change it, he'd probably have to tell them soon enough.

But that didn't matter, he needed to finish up his video, and it had been sorta interrupted and the illusion ruined by Cindy’s intrusion. She helped him set up again and started the song over, he started from the top.

Cindy ended up being a great help to him, navigating the website, and making social posts with his fans. She suggested him making a separate Twitter for his dance persona, so he could give them regular updates, rather than just extra lines in the description. With her help he was able to set up a poll about which duet dance they wanted to see him do with Cindy-or rather CiCi.

He waited a day after putting up his newest dance video where he announced all the new things he was doing, and his followers on Twitter skyrocketed. They were answering the poll without hesitation and the votes didn't lie. Magnet was a popular song for a duet, he had remember seeing tons of others doing it, but it was a little too intimate at times. He figured he had made his bed and had to lie in it, he texted Cindy the result.

Her response was cheerful, her attitude about Magnet probably was vastly different to his. She was a more experienced dancer than he was, so he figured she had danced to the song once or twice before. He decided to look at her video feed, seeing that she had, in fact, danced to the song exactly 4 times before. All with different partners, so of course she was desensitized to the intimacy of it all.

With her blessing and he awesome location finding skills, they were able to film Magnet with no issues at all and people were blowing up the video. He felt proud when people were saying that his duet with her was the best that she had done, other than the one with the dance Ari, which Prompto still had no idea who that was. There was a lot of dances that Cindy did with her, but he hadn’t remembered her from middle school, she wasn’t even sure she was a classmate. Cindy told him not to worry about it, that he would be meeting her soon, and he was a little afraid of what that meant.

One day after school when Noctis had to accompany his dad to an early dinner, he set up a cafe date with Cindy to meet the dance Ari. The cafe the chose was a cute quaint bubble tea place that he frequented with Noct and Iris, whenever she didn’t have soccer practice. The other good thing about the place was that it was just a few blocks from their high school so Prompto was able to walk there in under 10 minutes.

He was a little early and had ordered his drink and one of the food selections they had to offer-he settled on a bao bun, his lunch had been particularly light that day-and went to find a spot. It was a few minutes later where Cindy walked in with a slightly shorter silver haired girl, “There you are hun!” she waved and moved with the girl to sit in the seat across from him, “Wow you really picked a hole-in-the-wall didn’t ya.”

Prompto laughed a little, it was kind of true, the cafe didn’t get a lot of people coming to it, and was mostly populate with college or high school students. “Yeah, sorry it was the first place I could think of, Noct and I are regulars here,” he smiled at the other girl, stretching his hand across the table to where she sat, “Nice to meet you, I’m Prompto.”

She took it and smirked, “I know, you’re also P-to right?” she asked all too loudly.

Prompto tensed in her hand, he knew the cafe was mostly empty, but there were sometimes customers that he knew where into the who dancer scene, and he frequently saw himself on their laptops. “Not so loud!” he hissed, trying to get the point across that he wanted his identity a secret.

She only laughed in response, letting go of his hand and wrapping an arm around Cindy, “Calm down, blondie, I’m not gonna tell,” She smiled more trustworthy this time, “Cindy told me all about you, we’ve watched your stuff, Your Magnet with Cinds was pretty good too.”

“Not at good as yours,” Prompto let out, flushed at the cheeks, “I felt so nervous about getting so close I thought I was gonna die.”

“Good thing you had the mask then, huh?” Cindy smiled, nudging into Ari’s side.

“Well, I guess we just had an extra perk to make the lyrics, a little more believeable,” Ari chuckled, she stopped for a second and moved her other hand to introduce herself, “Sorry, I forgot to tell you my name, it’s Aranea.”

Prompto returned the hand with a shake, “Nice to meet you,” he said with a crooked smile. Aranea was nice, a little straightforward, but nice, he could see them doing loads of dances together, which had reminded him, “Hey, do you mind if we take a selfie after we’re done? I brought my mask with me today people would probably love if we did a duet.”

She mulled it over for a second, “Sure kid, why not, but none of that cutesy stuff you’ve been doing, and definitely no ship-worthy dances,” she laughed.

Prompto nodded, and saw the waiter coming out with his drink and bao bun, “oh, sorry I ordered ahead of you guys…”

“Oh it’s fine, hun, Aranea and I have dinner plans,” Cindy smiled, and it wasn’t until then Prompto realized the nature of their relationship. It wasn’t that he was dumb, it was mostly he didn’t have experience, and he remembered being all touchy feely with both Noct and Cindy when they hung out. So, seeing Aranea with an arm around her, didn’t really scream girlfriend to him, he buried his face in his hands, “Something wrong hun?”

“I completely just thought you guys were just gal pals,” he admitted, embarrassed at the use of the stupid internet slang he picked up. He was even more embarrassed when both Cindy and Aranea broke out into laughter.

“No, sorry blondie, been dating for at least 2 years now,” Aranea told him, wiping a tear from laughing to hard.

“We met in high school, but didn’t start dating until after we graduated, we’re going to the same college,” Cindy further explained, taking a chance to pick at the bun.

“Oh, you didn’t post it anywhere that you two were a couple,” Prompto realized all her social media had a lot of pictures of them together, but it never explicitly said ‘girlfriends.’ If Prompto was being honest with himself, his gaydar totally sucked, so he couldn’t decipher anything like that. “How am I supposed to know Cindy! You stopped talking to me after you graduated!”

“Hun, you started spending all your time with Noctis,” Cindy defended, “If you look at our messages, I’m pretty sure I’d be the last one that messaged you.”

“I’ll bet that you’re not,” Prompto shot back, he was pretty sure that he had messaged her the last time the talked.

“Gimme your bun if you’re wrong,” Cindy smiled taking the bet.

“That’s not fair!” he whined, “What do I get if I’m right?”

“The satisfaction of being right,” Aranea quipped for her girlfriend, “Proof that you put your boyfriend in front of your cute friend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend! We’re just friends i swear,” Prompto flushed again, getting teased about his probably all too obvious crush and the fact that his bun was being threatened was causing him to get flustered.

Aranea made a noncommittal noise of agreement, and both Cindy and Prompto pulled out their phones, “Okay hun, on three, most recent message.” Cindy scrolled through her messages, find their chat log.

Prompto followed suit and saw the date of the most recent message on the side of the text box, it read 10/25 he knew he was losing his bun. They both opened their chat log and Prompto slide the plate over to her, after Cindy let out a happy rejoicing sound, Aranea looked over her shoulder, “Wow, a birthday text even, cooooold,” she commented as cindy cut the bun in half and they both enjoyed their winnings.

Prompto sighed and sucked on the tea, he didn’t even remember getting that text, it was the year she had graduated, it wasn’t like his schedule years ago was all that busy, he just, couldn’t remember what kept him from answering her back.

“Was your boyfriend that important?” Aranea laughed, watching the contemplation on his face.

Prompto sighed, “I told you, we’re not boyfriends, just friends,” he clarified, although he wished he could tell Noct about the feeling he harbored for him, it was better just… leave them as they were, best friends was good enough. He turned to Cindy, “Also, Cindy, i’m sorry I should have messaged back sooner, I feel like a dick.”

“I mean you are one,” She joked, he his shoulder lightly, “But we’re friends again now, that’s the important part.”

Once they were done in the cafe, the exited together, Prompto slipped on his mask and posed with Aranea for a selfie to accompany his Twitter update. He took off his mask and slid it back into his backpack, waving goodbye after they headed for their car. They had offered him a ride home as consolation for eating his bun, but he waved it off and decided to walk home. He updated his twitter on the way, posting a new poll for the duet with Aranea, no cutesy, or stuff like magnet he thought, and started to list off ones that would fit her idea of an acceptable duet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day!  
> I had this ready to go, so I gift to you chapter one of this mess. 
> 
> Thanks again for reading! As always you can find me @earltealord on tumblr!


	3. Poker Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are headed out, something peaks Noct's interest

Prompto heard the blaring of his alarm as he stirred in his bed, it was only a week since graduation, but between late night dance practices with Cindy and Aranea, who had introduced him to more dancers-people he was a little surprised to see dance, like Luna and her older brother Ravus-and late night video editing, he had completely ruined his sleep schedule. He was glad to have met the siblings though, and they all had become pretty familiar with each other, after only hearing about them from Noctis.They were childhood friends, since their mom worked closely with his dad, but that was as much as he knew. They were friendly enough though, well, Luna was. Ravus was a little awkward and intimidating when they first met, but he came around after a while. It was soon enough that the five of them had become a little dance group of their own, and started hosting live streams every so often to connect with their fans. He, of course, kept up the anonymous silent masked guy persona, something about it kept his page fresh and appealing, and he played along, and let his dancing do the talking.

The alarm started to get louder and louder, he blindly searched for his phone, to turn it off and also trying to check the time. His alarm was only set this early because his best friend, Noct, had invited him to go on a roadtrip down the Galdin Quay beach resort, as a graduation gift. This, of course, was after he had gifted him with a lame keychain and a bracelet that reminded him of a dumb inside joke they shared. Of course, it was silly to compare gifts, Noct was a rich kid and Prompto well, wasn’t. He remembered Noct looking happy either way, and the few times he had gotten the time to hang out with his friend, he saw him wearing the bracelet.

Once he had palmed his bed enough to find his phone he squinted through the brightness to dismiss the alarm and saw it was 5:30 in the morning. He groaned, knowing that he had to pack the little things yet, it was mostly his toiletries and charging cords, but they were annoying to remember when you were up before dawn. He rolled lazily out of bed and shot a ‘morning’ text to Noctis, who was sure to be still asleep, he yawned a loud long yawn and headed toward his bathroom to get ready for the day. It was going to be mostly driving, so he could catch up on sleep in the car.

Once he was done with his shower, he shoved all the things he would need for the trip into a bag that was specific for holding toiletries, he had remembered to buy one when shopping with Noct for a suitcase, which he had packed the day before. He couldn’t help himself from yawning as he got changed in his room, they were supposed to leave Insomnia by 7, but he didn’t know why they were leaving so early in the first place. The first day was probably going to filled with rest, seeing as how Noctis loved his sleep and hated when people disturbed it, and how Prompto was usually up by 10 these days.

He place all his electronics in his backpack, being sure to double check that he had his phone and laptop charger. He checked his phone to see if there was a text from Noct yet, of course there wasn’t it was barely 6, his alarm was probably just going off. He decided to buy time watching dance videos, and responding to some comments people had left on his own. He had built quite a repertoire of videos on his page, from solo videos, duets, and trios, and people were still really excited whenever he posted something. Especially with the formation of their little dance group, people were so overjoyed to see him dancing with other popular dancers.

He hadn’t realized how late it had gotten when he felt his phone vibrate, it was a text from Noct. “Hey, sorry, just woke up, Iggy headed ur way.” the text read, he laughed to himself, Noct was not a morning person at all, yet his life was filled with people trying to wake him before noon. Prompto almost felt bad for him. Almost.

~~~

They were on the road by 8, Noct had fallen back asleep after sending him the text and it took him, and his two other, older, childhood friends, Ignis and Gladio, to drag him out of bed. Noct was a sound sleeper, and any attempt to wake him normally fell on deaf ears.

Prompto laughed, snapping a polaroid of his sleeping friend in the backseat of the car. They had decided to carry his sleeping body out burritoed in his comforter, Prompto was really happy Gladio lifted weights. He had told himself he was going to sleep in the car, but between helping drag his friend out of bed and carrying his suitcase, while Gladio hoisted Noct over his shoulder, his adrenaline had started pumping. He remembered Gladio laughing telling him that exercise was a better form of caffeine than coffee was. Ignis had huffed in response, saying the he thought coffee was a perfect product already. They were all pretty sure Ignis was addicted, but no one said anything, because being a business major probably gave him a hefty excuse.

“It’s so unfair, he looks so cosy in the blanket,” Prompto laughed looking at the polaroid, his friend’s sleeping face halfway covered by his comforter. It was a ridiculous photo that he was definitely going to share it with Cindy and Luna when they got back.

“He's gonna be suffering in a bit, Galdin’s a beach,” Gladio commented. He was right, Galdin was a famous beach attraction, known for its white sand, clear blue waters, and overbearing hot son. Not an ideal situation as his friend was keen to wearing all black, even his comforter was black, he was not going to be able to escape the heat.

“Prompto, could you put on some music,” Ignis asked, it was gonna be a long ride so having something to play in the background would probably lessen the monotony of staring at the road.

“Yeah, sure thing!” Prompto dug for his phone, he had a few more songs downloaded onto it than his generations old iPod he had since freshman year. He plugged the aux cord into his phone, set his songs to shuffle and let the music play.

In retrospect, he probably should have asked someone else for their music, because whenever the songs he learned for his videos played, he would instinctively do the arm movements. Accidentally grooving to them in the front seat, he didn't really pay attention to his companions reactions, they knew he liked different types of music so it wasn’t as if he was suspicious of them finding out his secret hobby. So after a few songs he didn't hold back, and was totally dancing to each song.

He heard Noct laugh in the back, “What are you doing?” he asked, Prompto turned in his seat to see his friend still swaddled in the blanket. His face was still just barely hidden but he had stuck his face out to get air.

“I'm dancing, duh” Prompto laughed back, continuing to move his arms to one of the songs that was playing. Making a point to overly sell the movements, making more laughter in the backseat.

Noct started moving the blanket off him, getting free use of his arms, stretching them once they were free, “How long until we reach Galdin?” he addressed Ignis, once Prompto stopped dancing.

“Should be there in a little under an hour,” he responded eyes on the road, “You sleep well?” he teased.

“Never better,” Noct yawned, Prompto took out his polaroid again snapped a quick picture of him. “Hey!” he said after seeing the flash, grabbing for the camera as the film developed.

Prompto pulled away just in time and took the picture. He examined it and burst out laughing, “Oh my gods, dude, you look hungover!” He remarked laughing at the photo in his hand, he friend had a terrible case of bedhead, and sleep riddle eyes despite just waking up. Yet despite all that, he still looked good, on any other person the ‘just rolled out of bed’ look would be horrid, on Noct, it made him a hot mess.

~~~

“Noctis, leave the blanket in the car,” Ignis scolded, seeing the noiret draping the conforter over his shoulders. Prompto laughed, taking out his suitcase and backpack from the trunk.

“You guys are the ones who brought it with,” Noct adjusted the blanket to wear like a shawl, moving to grab his things as well, “I’m sure front desk won’t mind me bringing my own.”

“You only have the thing because someone didn’t want to leave their bed,” Gladio chuckled, shutting the trunk once everyone had their things.

“Well I would have gotten up, if we didn’t have to get up at ass crack of dawn,” Noct grumbled, shoes flip flopping along the pavement.

“What time did you sleep last night,” Ignis ask very pointedly.

Noctis was silent for a long while, Prompto looked to him, he had remembered texting him while he was waiting for a video to upload, and that was around midnight last night. He heard Ignis let out a long sigh, Prompto smiled, even though their parents-in Ignis’ cause his Uncle-worked closely with Noct’s dad, they talked like they were brothers. Gladio shared the same sentiment with his friend, that somehow extended to him at times.

As they walked the length of the pier that led to the resort, Prompto took in the scenery, a little bummed that he didn’t think to bring his mask so that he film a dance here. He knew to think better of it, not that he didn’t trust his friends to not poke fun and keep his secret safe, he just didn’t want to risk anything. He held his camera as best he could and took another photo, the horizon beyond the resort. Once the photo developed, he struggled as best he could to save the picture in his case, it was hard to do one-handed.

They reached the front desk with relative ease, earning a few glances in Noct’s direction, certainly questioning why he was sporting a blanket for a cloak. He almost burst out laughing at the face the receptionist gave him. “Checking in for Lucis-Caelum,” Noct greeted the worker, shuffling up to the desk.

They receptionist pause for second to take in the boy, “Right,” she started typing on the computer in front of her, every so often looking up to take in his appearance. Prompto starts snickering, hold back laughter, that he knew needed to save for their hotel.

Once she checked them in, they made their way to the room. “Home sweet home!” Prompto chirped, falling down on one of the beds. Finally letting a bit of laughter out from earlier.

“What’s so funny?” Noct asked going to lay down next to him.

“The receptionist’s face, didn’t you see it? She was so weirded out!”

He heard Gladio and Ignis settle in as well, “You were wearing a blanket around your shoulders, and flip flops,” Gladio snorted, he was definitely trying not to laugh as hard as Prompto was.

“This is why I told you to leave the blanket in the car,” Ignis sighed, he heard his suitcase unzip.

Prompto sat up, “Well, we can’t stay here laughing at Noct all day, I’m gonna get ready to head down to the beach!” he smacked Noct on the chest playfully, and went to grab his trunks from this suitcase.

“Speak for yourself,” Gladio called out before Prompto shut the bathroom door.

Still smiling, Prompto took his time changing, he spent most of time in the bathroom updating his twitter, and messaging the group chat back home, he took a silly picture of himself in the full length mirror displaying the new chocobo themed swim trunks he found while shopping with Noct. He remembered Noct laughing at him when he picked them up like they were a blessed artifact, and may have gave him a few judgmental looks when he carried them to the cash register. They obviously wanted people his age to buy them, it’s not like he found them in the kids aisle or anything.

He checked his phone once more when he saw he had replies in the chat. Luna gushed about how cute he looked, Cindy and Aranea teased about how he was too old for Chocobo themed anything, and Ravus. Well, Ravus didn’t respond right away, but ten minutes later he told them to stop spamming the chat, he was probably at work.

When Prompto exited the bathroom he heard familiar music coming from what sounded to be a laptop speaker, when he turned the corner he saw everyone gathered around Noct’s computer focused on whatever was on screen. “Hey, what are you all watching?” he asked going to look at the screen as well.

“I got curious about the dancing you were doing in the car,” Noct replied looking to Prompto leaning back so he could get a good view, “I searched some of the songs, and turns out they have some pretty intense moves.”

Prompto leaned over more, now getting a clear view of the monitor, he froze. He recognized the masked dancer on screen, by some cruel fate, they had found one of his dance videos and were now watching them all together. His eyes were glued to the screen as he watched himself dance, no one said anything about if they knew or not. It was kind of impossible to tell who he was, hence why he did the whole masked dancer thing in the first place.

“Hey is that Cindy?” Noct said looking at the recommendations on the side, it was their Magnet they had done when they saw each other again. They had worn matching outfits, but the aesthetic thrown off by his mask.

“I do believe it is,” Ignis said, Noct clicked on the video right away.

“C’mon not another one,” Gladio grumbled, getting up from the bed and taking his turn in the bathroom. Prompto settled in his place next to Noct, side eyeing him, to see his reaction.

“Another? How many have you all watched?” Prompto asked Ignis, he heard Magnet playing in the background, and noticed a pout on his friends face.

“About ten or twenty, I think… He didn’t let the video play all the way through, he found Luna and Ravus in the videos, but starting focusing more on the masked dancer after seeing a duet he did with Luna,” Ignis stood from his place as well, going to his suitcase and rummaging for things.

“Why do they have to be so close?” Noct grumbled, Prompto noticed a tinge a pink on his cheeks.

“It’s just a dance, they probably have to get used to being intimate like that all the time,” Ignis answered only half-paying attention now, “Someone might have requested them to do so.”

“Yeah but…” Noct huffed, Prompto looked at him with amusement, what was going on here?

Prompto slid back against the headboard, “Are you jealous that Cindy is dancing with someone?” he teased, her fans were wild about her, he was sure there was a lot of boys his age that followed her online. The irony of that all.

Noct remained silent for a bit and Prompto saw him clicking through his page, scrolling through all the videos, “Why,” he said a little irritated, “Do they have so many videos together, are they dating? I don’t….”

Prompto almost let out a laugh, he moved away from Noct and his laptop, trying to get himself away from whatever Noct was focusing on. He went to find he beach towel and sunscreen, he noticed Gladio exiting the bathroom and trading places with Ignis, “What’s he up to now?” he asked crossing the room to put away the clothes he was just wearing.

“Seems Noct has developed a crush on the Masked dancer,” Ignis said matter-of-factly, as he walked to the bathroom.

Prompto tilted his head up at the sentence looking to Noct who had closed his laptop in a huff, “I did not!” he almost yelled, the faint pink from earlier was turning into a stronger red.

Prompto kept his head down, he would really need to tell everyone else about this when he got back, there was no way he could tell Noct about this. He probably would be so mad at him, he would definitely need to ask for advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading! It mean world's to have your support! Im really happy people are like this cute dumb au i thought of, your comments are so sweet!
> 
> Again if you wanna follow me on Tumblr its @earltealord if you have any quedtion, or just wanna further your support there.


	4. Coward Montblanc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What do you do when your best friend and crush has a crush on your alter-ego?

**P-to:** He found out, he totally knows!

**LuLu:** Who?

**Ari:** Probably his boyfriend…

**CiCi:** How did he find out? Did he find your mask? You weren’t dancing at the beach were you??

**P-to:** No, no

**P-to:** He’s not my boyfriend!!

**P-to:** But

**P-to:** I just

**P-to:** in the car

**P-to:** Ignis asked for music, I played my phone...

**Rae:** Don’t spam the chat.

**LuLu:** Shh, Ravus he’s telling us a story

**Rae:** He doesn’t need 20 messages to say one story.

**Ari:** It always freaks me out that you put a period after every message

**Rae:** …

**Ari:** …………………………..

**P-to:** Guys!

**CiCi:** just ignore them hun

**P-to:** Right so, when we got to to the hotel, I went to change, like it was right after I sent the pic earlier, they were watching our vids, he went to my page! He was watching them guys! When we came back for dinner he opened up his laptop and went back to watching them! He knows!!!

**Ari:** You guys brought your laptops on vacation with you?

**LuLu:** Aranea, that’s not the point

**LuLu:** come to think of it, I did get a text from Noctis earlier asking if Ravus and I were dancers

**Rae:** I still don’t forgive you that you told him.

**LuLu:** You don’t hide your face like Prompto does, what was I supposed to say??

**LuLu:** Oh yeah, he also asked me if I knew who ‘P-to’ was

**P-to:** And?

**LuLu:** I didn’t tell him that it was you, but I said I did know the dancer, he pressed me for more information, but group secrecy.

**CiCi:** Good job!

**LuLu:** I was proud of myself too Cindy!

**Ari:** Why did he ask?

**P-to:** well….

**P-to:** Ignis said he has a crush on the Masked Dancer, P-to… well me

**P-to:** I’m freaked out cause I don’t know what to do

**Ari:** BOI CLAIM HIM

**Ari:** That way you stop correcting me for something that’s so obvious

**LuLu:** Aranea

**Ari:** I mean, that’s what I would do

**CiCi:** that’s what you did sug’

**LuLu:** If you’re scared to tell him, then I would say don’t do so until you’re comfortable.

**Rae:** That’s probably the worst piece of advice.

**LuLu:** Says the person who took 2 years to confess to Ignis

**Rae:** …

**P-to:** Wait…

**P-to:** You’re DATING IGNIS?

**LuLu:** whoops ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**[Rae has left the chat]**

**[LuLu has added Rae to the chat]**

**[Rae has left the chat]**

**[LuLu has added Rae to the chat]**

**[Rae has left the chat]**

**[LuLu has added Rae to the chat]**

**LuLu:** Ravus

**LuLu:** Don’t make me go to your room

**Ari:** I’m dying

**P-to:** I’m gonna have to talk to Ignis tomorrow

**P-to:** does he know you dance?

**Rae:** Why do you think you’re going to get an answer out of me?

**LuLu:** Yes he does

**Rae:** Lunafreya.

**LuLu:** I swear to the gods Rae

**CiCi:** Y’all are being very funny tonight

**P-to:** oawndfashldlas

**CiCi:** You alright hun?

**P-to:** sorry, I’m sleeping next to Noct he moved his arm around me and swatted the phone into my face.

**Ari:** Wow

**Ari:** Not even boyfriends and y’all snuggle together

**P-to:** I snuggle with everyone!

**P-to:** I am very cuddly!

**CiCi:** Sorry hun, he is

**LuLu:** Noctis must have gotten accustomed to that then

**P-to:** huh?

**LuLu:** >:3c

**LuLu:** Nothing, nevermind

**Rae:** I am unsure if you want to help them or not.

**LuLu:** I’ll tell you tomorrow

**P-to:** Me?

**LuLu:** Ignore that, that was supposed to be for Ravus

**CiCi:** Sneaky~

**P-to:** (´･ω･`)?

**LuLu:** I promise I’ll tell you when you get back okay?

**LuLu:** It’s getting late, you should sleep.

**P-to:** Fiiine, Night guys

**LuLu:** Goodnight, that means you too Ravus

**Rae:** I’m studying.

**P-to:** (i see the light from Ignis’ phone too….)

**LuLu:** Ravus

**LuLu:** Let them sleep, he has to drive.

**Ari:** Pfft

**CiCi:** Night y’all

Prompto turned off his screen and slid his phone under his pillow, he snuggled into the blanket and into Noct’s arm. It was a little weird considering the circumstance that surrounded their friendship, but it was something they always did regardless. They had a weird habit of napping together, and Noct found out quickly that his friend was very cuddly, and probably let his guard down. It wasn’t something new for Prompto, back before he met Noct, when he and Cindy would hang out it was the same story, Prompto just really like the warmth of others when he slept.

After a while of regulating his heartbeat, and listening to Noct breathe, Prompto found himself very quickly asleep. He was very happy to have friends like he had made in the dance group, not that he wasn’t thankful for noct always being there for him, but having other people to hang out with was refreshing, not even including everyone’s double lives that they shared together. He did feel a little guilty keeping his secret from Noct, but he made sure to promise himself that he would tell him when he was ready. Which…. Oddly enough was something he was telling himself about a certain other thing her would need to get out of the way. He let his mind race with these thought for a bit, until his brain could no longer process these stressors.

~~~

Galdin was a fun week long vacation, Prompto had messaged the chat when they arrived back in Insomnia, and they were to have a live stream that night. A welcome back party of sorts, since they hadn’t done their weekly stream in almost two weeks. They planned for a saturday night, renting out their usual studio, and setting everything up so that they could stream and talk to fans easily.

Prompto sprinted over that saturday afternoon, super excited to talk with everyone again. When he got there, he saw the siblings had arrived first and were starting to set up. “Heyaz,” he greeted walking in.

“Hey!” Luna’s face lit up when she turned to him, she raced over to give him a huge hug, “How was Galdin?”

“Besides the dilemma I told you guys about? It was pretty awesome,” Prompto laughed, letting go of the hug to set his things down, “Didn’t you say you needed to talk to me about something?”

Luna shrugged, “I told you I needed to talk to Ravus, the message was meant for Ravus,” She looked toward her brother, “Right, Ravus?”

Prompto looked at him too, he didn’t peel his eyes away from the laptop, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he responded, deadpanned and occupied.

Luna didn’t give up much after that, only smiled and went back to what she was doing before Prompto had interrupted by walking in. Prompto wasn’t going to hold a grudge-he wasn’t even sure he was capable of doing so-he knew Luna had her reasons for secrecy. Even though, he wasn’t even sure what the topic she was keeping secret was. He knelt down to open his bag and pulled out his mask, sliding the elastic around his forehead, to keep the mask out of the way until the live stream needed to start. “Are Cindy and Aranea bringing the snacks this time?” Prompto asks moving to the water fountain to fill up his water bottle.

“I think so, they pulled for it last time right?” Luna replied, pausing what she was doing too look at her brother.

“I believe so, if not Luna brought stuff as well,” he replied, eyes still on the computer, Prompto looked to Luna, who had a slight pout on her face.

By the look of it whatever she packed probably wasn’t meant for everyone, but Luna was a kind soul and usually made sure Prompto had one of her protein bars before starting. It was funny to think that Luna had basically become his big sister since the group began, but she looked out for everyone. Even the chat called her the ‘Group Mom.’ She had laughed at the nickname if only because it seemed oddly fitting. Especially since, Prompto was being called the baby, some people called him the ‘Maknae’ and others just said he was the little brother type, he didn’t like it as much, but being the youngest, there was only so much he could do.

“Sorry for making you wait!” Aranea said carrying in a case of plastic water bottles, Cindy was holding the door for her, with plastic bags in her hand, “There was this annoying lady in front of us, insisting that her two month expired coupon was still good.”

“She was the literal worst,” Cindy laughed, closing the door behind her, they both moved toward the set up.

“We got the big place today?” Aranea commented surveying the room, putting the case down on the floor.

Luna laughed, “You know i have connections,” and it was true, back in high school luna would take dance at this very studio. Her former instructor, a lady named Gentiana, had been very close with her. The one time the group had met her, she called Luna, ‘her favorite student’ and she was allowing Luna to use this space for their live streams.

“We’re all set up, whenever you’re ready,” Ravus said looking toward everyone.

Prompto slid on his mask, and moved toward the Laptop with everyone else. The all got in frame as best they could, and started the live stream. They waited for a few moments before comments started pouring in, everyone was waving hello, and, save for Prompto, was greeting each commenter they could.

“Thanks so much for joining us again,” Luna was always the one to lead, “As you know, we’re doing a late one this week because P-to was out of town, and the week before, we had to skip because he graduated! So now we’re throwing a little celebration for him, be sure to give him your love!”

Prompto felt his face flush under the mask, watching the chat being spammed with heart emojis and congrats directed at him. He returned their love by making a heart with his hands and holding it in front of his chest. After a while of spam, he got overwhelmed and kinda scooted off camera. Luna laughed, “Okay, he really feels the love, how about we get this started then, anyone have any suggestions?

 

~~~

Months later, was moving day. Back before their senior graduation, he and Noct had set up a plan to be roommates seeing as how the were attending the same school together. Noct was able to afford the university because his dad was rich, Prompto was able to go because of a Photography scholarship his teacher had told him about back in junior year. It only made sense for them to stay together, It was also the very same college that Luna, Ravus, Ignis, and Gladio attended, so getting help with their entry level classes were going to be pretty easier.

Everything was still going fine with the group, they still held livestreams every week, although with school starting back up, they had decided to space it out to one every other week. He had felt a little bad, since most of the summer was him doing dance practice, live streams, or filming, so he and Noct barely saw each other after they got home from Galdin. They, of course, made a point to skype a lot, and play videogames together, perhaps to compensate for lost time.

When they did hang out he noticed Noct was talking more and more about the dance scene Prompto was apart of, mentioning how, the past few months was mostly him watching a lot of covers of the same dance. He laughed when Prompto mentioned that he should become one of the dancers, saying that he’d suck at doing any of the choreography He decided to leave up to the professionals.

Noct was also mentioning the Masked dancer more and more, he had found out through Luna that they had livestreams. So he was catching up on old ones, that one of their followers had graciously archived on YouTube for them. Prompto had called him admirable for going that far to stalk his crush. He’s pretty sure he still has the bruise from where he hit him on the arm after saying that.

Yet, Prompto still hadn’t told him. He wasn’t sure what his friend would do. It was dumb to think that he needed to hide this from him, but the time had past where an outright confession seemed appropriate. Back in Galdin would have been ideal, but he didn’t have his mask at the time, so proving it would have been difficult. That didn't excuse Prompto from the many chances he had to do confess.

Even now as they were moving their things into the new place, Prompto had been extra cautious to hide the mask in a mislabeled box that was meant for his room. The level of risks he wanted to take were next to none, so he was overly protective of it. He was definitely going to be scolded by Luna and Cindy again.

He had started to unpack his things that night while Noct procrastinated and played video games instead. After a while of boring mundane unpacking, Prompto went to go join his friend on the couch. “So,” his friend began, still focused on his game, “How’d you like the place?”

“I can hear all the college parties we’re gonna have already dude,” Prompto laughed, nudging him playfully with his shoulder.

“Yeah, like i’d attend,” Noct returned the nudge, his words filled with sarcasm.

“You better, People need to know the glory of the Chateau de Chocobros,” he was still laughing, just the ridiculousness of it all, to even think such loners would ever have a grandiose party like the ones in the movies.

Noct let go of the controller to shove him, “Yeah right,” he laughed, “I think we’ll be fine without them.” Prompto smiled at him, noticing he had pressed the home button load up the YouTube on the console.

“YouTube and chill?” Prompto joked, he knew he was spending way too much time on the internet.

“If you don’t mind, I got tired of the game, I wanted to catch up on more of their streams,” Noct responded browsing his history and resume the last stream he was watching.

Prompto laughed nervously, “Of course not, you’re like a real fan boy aren’t you?”

Noct let out a noncommittal noise that was matched with a shrug, “To be honest,” He said after he played the video, “I like the idea of supporting my friends, seems like they’re working hard.”

“Or you want an excuse to watched the masked guy dance more,” Prompto chirped, it felt really weird teasing him about a crush he had on himself, though he wasn’t going to let him in on his secret quite yet.

“What kinda guy doesn’t even talk to his audience,” Noctis grumbled, watching the screen now, Prompto remembered the live stream he was watching. It was from Halloween last year, they had all dressed up in their costumes, it was also his birthday stream so they got cupcakes to celebrate. He was glad he had chose to wear the mask because everyone was suggesting to shove the cake in his face, somehow he still got frosting on his shirt.

That was also day they had spent all more trying to get Gee down to upload so everyone was still in good spirits. Well, everyone besides Ravus of course. “Why does Ravus always look so mad?” Noctis laughed, Prompto focused back on the screen and he and Ravus were dancing to one of the sillier songs he remembered the chat suggesting. They had filmed a video the song a few weeks prior to the stream, but people kept suggesting it.

“This song is just about penis,” Ravus said to the camera after reading the lyrics, everyone else in the group laughed so hard.

Ravus was always the extra serious guy no matter what song they were dancing to, Prompto thought back to when they were filming Gee again. He remembered how he barely held it together seeing Ravus do the too cutesy moves. Prompto was fine with it of course, but Ravus always seemed too manly to be doing some of the dancers they worked on as a group. He had remembered breaking out into laughter several times when the video was trying to be filmed, Ravus was threatening to not join them in the dance. He had kept it together tho, and only let his laughter erupt after the song was done, he was so gone, he had to thank whoever edited the video so many times over for cutting away before he took off that mask to let himself breathe.

“Isn’t Ravus always grumpy?” Prompto chuckled, watching his friends do the chubby bunny challenge, it was Aranea verses Cindy as the rest looked on in concern. He watched himself leave the camera, and remembered having to walk away because after Aranea lost the grossest wad of half eaten marshmallows came out of her mouth.

Noct let out a sound of disgust, no doubt in reaction to her loss, “Oh my god dude, why..”

Prompto shrugged, and he suddenly got a pain in his stomach, watching the live streams with Noct would be much more enjoyable if only he could tell him the behind the scenes of everything that happened. Prompto wanted to tell him, but was afraid that Noct would be mad that he was messing with him. So, he stayed quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of chat fic format, I laughed too hard while writing that bit. Also is there a fic where these two don't room together, cause that's not this fic! I'll be sure to write more about what they do in their live streams
> 
> Also I debated putting this up today, but decided to anyway because y'all deserve it
> 
> As always thanks for reading! Comments and Kudos are met with such love you don't even know!
> 
> If you guys want to support me more or just ask about the Au, you can find me on Tumblr @earltealord!


	5. Heat Haze Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School has begun, the boys are slowly getting used to life in college

School had started on a really warm week, like really, uncomfortably hot. He and Noct weren’t ready for the heat wave that hit that first week of classes, they were fine in the apartment and at campus sure, but the trek they made to school and back, was the worst thing in the universe for them. But other than the walking they were now forced to do, really nothing from high school changed. He and Noct had gotten really lucky to get some of their entry classes scheduled together, and they had a lot of their breaks together. They only difficulty was getting them both up before noon after a summer of late nights ruined their schedules.

Prompto’s sweaty suffering was only punctuated with how unbearably long his evenings would get, seeing as how whenever the group would get together to film, they still did it outdoors, despite what temperature it was outside. Although, with much whining they had settled to do some dances in the air conditioned studio they frequented. It felt like a second home, having been their head quarters for their streams the somewhat two years they had been together. Their two year anniversary stream was rapidly approaching somehow it paired with his and Ravus’ birthday month, so there was a lot of celebrating to be had in October.

It was a little pitiful, seeing as how he and Noct barely got anytime to hang out with how busy they’d been, it was really lucky that they decided to move in together because, had they been apart, their friendship would have gone just as silent as his and Cindy’s did after her graduation. Although, they still chilled on the couch together, trading notes as they studied halfway paying attention to the live streams Noct was still insistent on catching up on.

He was still surprised that Noct still hadn’t figured out that P-to was him, his friend must have been a lot dumber than he gave him credit for. Though, it was still Prompto’s fault for not spilling the beans earlier, it was just really stressful trying to find the right words. And well, Noct hated beans.

This time, after they had settled to do their homework, the Live stream he had put on was the one right before this past Christmas. Prompto was surprised that he was catching up so quickly, he was sure to be caught up in time for the anniversary one for sure. He halfway paid attention to the screen, he remembered that day, Aranea thought it was funny to wear Santa hats the entire stream, Luna had set up a secret santa that they were celebrating on stream, and Cindy had pulled for snacks that day. That night was also known amongst them as the let’s kill Ravus with embarrassment night, as the chat joined in on suggesting the cutest songs that they could find and the rest of the group were pulling lots for who had to wear the Mr. and Mrs. Claus outfits.

Ravus did not have a very lucky night. Prompto on the other hand remembered Luna giving him a Christmas theme masked to dance with that day, and he had pulled to wear the santa suit, having Ravus being his Mrs. Claus. The best thing was after Ravus finally committed someone suggested that Mr. and Mrs. Claus dance to Magnet or Cantarella. Solidifying the communities need to pair him and Ravus together.

“Holy fuck is Ravus wearing a dress?” Noct laughed looking up from his homework after hearing everyone laugh loudly in the video.

“Doesn’t look half bad,” Prompto snickered, he remember how he refused to even want to try walking in the heels that paired with it. It fit tight, but it fit him, almost as if Aranea knew that he’d be the one to wear it.

Noctis returned his comment with a quick hit on his hard, “Don’t let Ignis hear you say that,” he laughed, going back to pay attention to the video, Ravus had been requested to do a solo dance before he remembered jumping into the santa suit. He was going to do one of the dance choreography from the video game Just Dance, it was some song called ‘follow the leader,’ everyone had learned it at one point, but they never filmed anything of it, well besides this.

“I still have to talk to him about that,” Prompto laughed, looking away, seeing Ravus dance in the ill-fitting dress once was already enough, he definitely did not have to relive the experience of seeing way too much of him.

He heard Noct laughing so much it shook the couch, “I-I gotta send this to Ignis,” he pulled out his laptop from his bag and started loading it to send the video over.

Prompto pulled his phone out as well, well prepared to send a warning text to Ravus.

**P-to:** Hey so…. Noct is watching our christmas live stream from last year

**P-to:** He…. May or may not be sending it to ignis

**P-to:** Just, fyi

**P-to:** I’m sorry

**Rae:** Tell Noctis, I’m going to kill him the next time I see him.

Prompto laughed nervously, looking to Noct who was still typing away on his computer. Probably chatting it up with Ignis about how his boyfriend was cross dressing and dancing to a very seductive song. Prompto looked back to the video, Ravus looked so done already, but he knew what was coming next. They had chose to do Magnet, if only because Cantarella had two different versions to the dance they couldn’t decide which they wanted to do.

As the song started up, Noct snapped his head up, Prompto had noticed this and furrowed his brow in confusion. Noct was watching intently, there was no laughs this time, even though there definitely should have been. Prompto looked to the screen as well, to see him and Ravus dancing in matching santa suits was ridiculous, and Magnet had become a meme song to all of them at this point. But yet, Noct was just silently watching, there was no grumbling about it like the day at Galdin, maybe he was reassured about the touching since Ravus was dating Ignis and he wasn’t catching up with Cindy like Prompto had, so he didn’t know that Aranea was her girlfriend. Was he really that much of a jealous type that he would get mad at a friend for moving too close to a potential crush?

After the song ended, Prompto looked to Noct once more, he was back to messaging Ignis, but he was blushing a little. “Hey,” Prompto called out to him.

He just a little and looked back at him, “What?” he said embarrassed.

“You still have a crush on the masked dancer guy don’t you?”

“I thought everyone knew at this point, I feel so stupid about it, cause I don’t even know who he is, I just,” He looked away back at the computer, not even registering that the girls were telling Ravus not to sit cross legged in the dress, cause chat would see everything.

Prompto wasn’t paying too much attention either, he felt such a pain in his chest that his friend was so blind to not know that he was the Masked dancer. “You just….?” Prompto urged him on.

“Dude, I’m not telling you,” He laughed, returning his gaze to the stream.

“Come oooooon, I told you all the details when I thought I had a crush on Cindy!” Prompto pleaded, he didn’t even know why he was pressing this, he could just get up right now and grab his mask from his room.

“Yeah, I didn’t ask you to though,” he moved his eyes to meet Prompto’s, he was smiling now, “Besides you’re gonna laugh.”

“Like you didn’t laugh at me,” Prompto pouted, if he couldn’t pretend to be a good friend, what was all the hiding worth.

Noct exhaled, “Fine, but promise not to laugh,” he held out his pinky.

“Cmon dude, pinky swears? What are we five?” Prompto whined, but stuck his pinky out as well, know how much the swears meant to him. They curled their fingers around each other to solidify the deal.

“Okay,” Noct dropped his hand, “So, I like the way his hips move….” he confessed quietly.

The heat rose to Prompto’s face so fast, he was probably becoming a space heater sitting next to his friend. Also trying to hold in laughter, the confession took him by surprise. Noct liked the way his hips moved, his hips, specifically his. Prompto played that line over and over in his head.

They sat in silence for the rest of the stream and as noct moved to play the next one Prompto excused himself by going to bed. “Night, see tomorrow,” Noct said eyes fixated on the New Year’s Stream they did.

“Yeah, night,” Prompto replied in a daze.

**P-to:** So

**P-to:** Noct says he likes my hips

**P-to:** He likes my hips guys

**P-to:** WHat am I supposed to do???

**Ari:** How many times….

**CiCi:** I thought you said you told him!

**P-to:** I said I was planning on it

**LuLu:** You’ve been saying that for months

**P-to:** Luna, he just said he likes my hips, I’m a little distracted

**Ari:** He didn’t say that like 2 months ago

**Ari:** He obviously finds your body attractive

**Ari:** Go show yourself off!

**CiCi:** Don’t listen to her, but you should be happy he find you attractive

**LuLu:** Honestly I would be happy too if i found out

**LuLu:** Meaning like, if the guy I liked found me attractive

**LuLu:** I don’t like Noctis

**Ari:** I was rootin for an all out brawl for the lover boy

**CiCi:** Aranea

**LuLu:** Aranea

**P-to:** I’d have to back down, luna would kick my ass

**LuLu:** well it’s a good thing I don’t like him then

**CiCi:** Not even a little? Y’all were sweethearts right?

**LuLu:** To be honest, once he got into high school, I realized something about him

**P-to:** What was that?

**LuLu:** ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

**P-to:** Luna!!

**LuLu:** Sorry! He told me something in confidence, I can’t spread that secret

**P-to:** (๑•̀д•́๑)

**LuLu:** Sorry!!

**Ari:** Omg

**CiCi:** Hun, don’t

**Ari:** Babe, but they’re young, and stupid

**P-to:** Me??

**Ari:** Yes you, you stupid stupid

**Ari:** Ahgha

**CiCi:** We support your decisions hun, but really you can’t lie to him forever

**P-to:** Am i really lying?

**P-to:** I like to see it as more of…. Hiding information from him

**LuLu:** Prompto

**P-to:** Where’s Ravus?

**Ari:** Classic

**Ari:** Changing the subject to not face reality

**[P-to removed Ari from the chat]**

**[CiCi added Ari to the chat]**

**Ari:** I cant

**Ari:** Prompto how could you

**Ari:** You kicked me

**Ari:** （Ω Д Ω）

**LuLu:** Ravus is with Ignis for the night

**LuLu:** Apparently he told me to relay the message that Noctis is gonna die

**Ari:** at least Ravus knows how to get sum fuk

**[Rae removed Ari from the chat]**

**[CiCi added Ari to the chat]**

**CiCi:** Swear to gods, last one babe

**Ari:** How tf did a lurker kick me

**Rae:** He didn’t, he’s in the shower, forgot to turn off notifications

**LuLu:** Hi Ignis!

**[P-to left the chat]**

**[Rae added P-to to the chat]**

**Rae:** I’m not dumb Prompto, I knew it was you when we saw the first video back on Galdin

**Rae:** Really only Noct doesn’t know that you’re the Masked dancer

**P-to:** You haven’t told?

**Rae:** It’s not my business to, I’m sure he’ll either find out by himself eventually or you’ll tell him

**Rae:** I’m not here to hold his hand

**LuLu:** See Ignis is on your side too!

**Rae:** That I am, I have to go now, Ravus is done

**CiCi:** Babe don’t

**Ari:** I wasn’t

**P-to:** Well I feel a little better now

**LuLu:** Good! See people are supporting you all!

**LuLu:** If anything we’re more annoyed that Noctis is dumb

**Ari:** Though, If he’s looking at your hips you know at least one thing

**P-to:** (´・ω・｀)

**CiCi:** I’m not gonna add you back

**Ari:** I wasn’t gonna say it, they’re almost 19 for gods sake

**LuLu:** Omg

**CiCi:** I live with this

**Ari:** ( ´ ▽ ` )b

 

Prompto laughed to himself, their chats always seemed to get off the handle pretty quickly, but what

Aranea said put a heavyweight in his stomach. They were old enough to think about stuff like that, was Noct having fantasies about the masked dancer, well him. Was he having fantasies about him?!

He rolled over to put his face in his pillow, muffling his scream. That was too much for him to think, just everything that happened this afternoon, it happened so fast, and he wasn’t near ready enough to admit to him anything if that was the case. He would have to play it safe for now, just focus on school and keep his alter ego a secret. It seemed like something a superhero would say to themselves, which made it…. A little better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent a good 10 minutes laughing at the fact that I made Ravus wear a dress. I also I am very fond of adding little chat fic segments to this, by the way they're probably definitely using something like Facebok messenger cause who texts with their phone anymore?
> 
> Also if you haven't notice by now, all the chapter names are actual songs from vocaloids! a little fun fact!  
> Also I'm trying to pace this out as best I can  
> But again thank you so much for reading! if you wanna support me on Tumblr I'm @earltealord  
> maybe one of these days I'll post stuff about my fics there


	6. Just Be Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Prompto was a tactless man, he would have probably tried to kiss him by now, but he knew himself too well, despite whatever Aranea was trying to get him and Noct to do. All the incessant, ‘you have to just go in there and do it’, wasn’t his style.

It was not easy to get up for the second week of classes. Going to class at 8am wasn’t a feat Prompto was up to anymore than he was in high school. At least he made more of an effort than Noct ever would. He slowly stirred in his bed around 6am, the sun was barely peeking between the shutters. Kicking his sheets off him, trying to unbind himself from the confines of his bed, he laid on his back and draped an arm to cover his eyes. Maybe it would get easier to be up this early, he was usually good about it when he was younger, needing to go for early morning runs to lose weight. He was usually good about it until his junior year, where he started dancing. He had figured rather than double the amount of strain on his joints, it would just be easier to stick to one thing, his mornings were returned where he could sleep in. He had mentioned to Noct how great it felt to not be up before the sun, and that he was finally coming to his side of the fence. What a short lived life that was.

Prompto swung his legs over the side of the bed and slowly lifted himself up, yawning loudly, and earning a little moan as he stretched. If it was just him, he would be able to sleep longer, he would be able to get up by 630, shower, have a nice breakfast, and be out the door in time for his first class. Something he was accustomed to back when he was at home. But now that Noctis was part of the occasion, he needed to allow time for him to wake both them up, and Noct needed a lot of encouragement. He stood and started to exit his room, heading for his best friend’s door. He heard familiar voice of his friends coming from the tv in the living room so he stopped.

“There is no way I’m putting that on my head,” he heard Luna laugh from the tv. He stepped closer wondering why the tv was on, and found Noctis passed out on the couch.Apparently their streams had lulled him to sleep.

He walked over to his friend and kneeled down to examine him, he had definitely made himself comfortable, sprawled out on the couch half on side but mostly resting on his stomach. His face was half buried into the couch cushion, and there was a bit of wetness coming from his mouth. Prompto let out a soft laugh, “Gross dude, you drool?”

He of course didn’t receive an answer, Noct was sleeping too soundly to register that his best friend was only inches from him. He still had the controller in his hand, but it must have died during the night, the light on that usually indicated the controller was in use was no longer lit. Prompto moved his gaze to the rest of his friend’s body, he didn’t even bother to grab his blanket from his room to wrap up in. His shirt was riding up, and Prompto felt his cheeks flush when he saw protruding hip bones peek through the fabric. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen them before, they’d been in the same gym class for years, but it was odd seeing him resting so peacefully, how his skin moved slightly with his sleeping breaths.

If Prompto was a tactless man, he would have probably tried to kiss him by now, but he knew himself too well, despite whatever Aranea was trying to get him and Noct to do. All the incessant, ‘you have to just go in there and do it’, wasn’t his style. After years being ridiculed for just being him, he took to hiding his emotions and stuffing feelings deep in the dark pits of his stomach. That also included the feelings that were currently bubbling up seeing his friend on the couch.

But Prompto couldn’t tear his eyes away, it was a weird type of intimacy, something that, friends should never go beyond. And yet.

Prompto unknowingly leaned in towards Noct’s face, it seemed like something he wanted to do, his heart started beating fast. He inched closer and closer, until.

“Hey!” Prompto jumped up, looking around, Noct was still asleep, but he forgot the stream was still going. It was Aranea yelling at the chat, apparently something had happened that got her angry.

Prompto laughed to himself, “First you want me to go for it, then you yell at me, make up your mind Aranea,” he could feel his cheeks red, his heart still rapid in his chest. He reached out to Noct shaking him by the shoulder, speaking loudly, “Hey, cmon sleeping beauty, time to get up!” He chirped, trying to ignore whatever he was just doing.

Noct stirred slightly, scrunching his body into a fetal position, but Prompto didn’t stop shaking him. “Get up, get up, get up~” Prompto started to sing, moving his hands in the semi-rhythm he had going. Waiting for Noct to stare at him with the eyes of death, that usually meant he was going to get up.

Noct was relentless this morning, despite all the shaking, all the loudness, he was still soundly asleep, mostly likely dead to the world. Prompto was getting frustrated, it only mean his friend must have stayed up way too late last night to be this dead asleep. He debated leaving him there to sleep for the day, but he knew Ignis would ask where he was, and Prompto would feel like such a failure and pushover for not being able to wake his friend. A devilish thought went past his brain, he leaned down to his ear, he usually hated whispers, and got all flustered when someone would put lips to close to his ears. It was something he told Prompto in confidence after Prompto was utterly confused why a simple whisper from Luna one day got him so hot and bothered. But if that’s what he needed to resort to, he would have to play dirty. “Noct don’t make me kiss you awake,” he said softly, words that were, inherently embarrassing, and only feeding the stupid crush that he was trying to keep secret. But he needed Noct up and he could probably play it off as a joke if Noct asked any questions.

After Prompto let out the sentence it was strangely quiet, he pulled away from the ear trying to see if Noct had reacted at all. His usually reaction would be to swat away anyone who got that close, but Noct was still. It wasn’t until Prompto pulled away that he found his friend's eyes wide open, staring at him with flustered shock. “Oh so you are awake,” Prompto laughed, he moved to get up away from the couch, “I’m going to go take a shower, you better get up, I wasted too much time trying to wake you up.”

Noct wasn’t moving, though, the sentence had probably put a weird feeling between them, but he hadn’t said anything about it. “C’mon dude,” Prompto called out to him, “Move your butt!”

The silence from him grew, before he finally sat up, “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” he said smirking at Prompto.

Prompto’s words came out fast, he knew being friends was easier than, whatever they had going on now. “Ew, no way dude, keep that for your own love life,” Prompto returned the smirk and retreating into his room. He grabbed for his phone and sent a quick message to Aranea, it was still a little too early for her to read and respond right away but Prompto was feeling conflicted and needed to throw blame somewhere. After that was done, he jumped into the shower, savouring the bit of time he had to think and cool off.

He had totally almost tried to kiss him, that wasn’t something best friends do. There’s nothing in this world that would have told him that was okay, except maybe Aranea, but he wasn’t going to give up much details on the reason he was mad at her. Well, he was also glad that past her had stopped him, but also mad because that would have been a good time to confess. Or actually it wouldn’t have, no not at all.

Prompto scrubbed a little too hard at his head while shampooing his hair, this was all so confusing and he really, really didn’t want to think about what he almost did. Sure Noct, technically had a crush on him, but that didn’t give Prompto the excuse to do what he did. Odds are Noct probably was imagining someone else as the masked dancer, so Prompto being in his space and trying to put ‘moves’ on him was probably really weird and disgusting to him. Prompto was probably, just disgusting to him.

He finished up quick, lingering with these thoughts was not a good way to start the morning no matter how weird it was. He stepped out and wrapped his towel around his waist, moving from the bathroom to his bedroom with a quick pace, one to avoid Noct a little, but also he was sure he was running short on time. He peeked toward the living room to see if Noct made any headway in getting dressed, he didn’t seem to be snoozing on the couch and the tv was off, so at least he had moved in the right direction.

If he was as weirded out with Prompto, as Prompto was with himself, he probably wouldn’t have taken to moving from the couch to his bed just to fall asleep again. He was probably getting ready contemplating Prompto’s words and actions, because man was he weird.

Prompto got dressed in relative silence, he did hear the shower running once again. Noct was probably getting a morning shower in, washing off all the sleep and sweat from the night before. Prompto wondered if he would come to the same conclusion that Prompto made. That Prompto was really weird, and what he had suggested doing to wake him up was unbecoming of his best friend. Prompto wondered if it would be better to ignore it and move on or just to play it off as a joke.

He sighed, packing his backpack and gym bag with his dance things. He had classes until 5 and he was planning on doing a duet with Ravus today after he got done with stuff in the library. He was able to at least ignore Noct for the rest of the day if the whole thing wasn’t brought up, and even if it was, ignoring him was kinda easier. He could focus on his classes and Noct could go home and focus on whoever he thought the masked dance was, probably fantasizing more about them under the mask, rather than his best friend. That would only make logical sense.

He exited his room and headed for the kitchen, deciding to eat some lowfat yogurt and granola, it wasn’t the most ideal breakfast, but it’d hold him over until lunch. He was eating absentmindedly when Noct finally came out of his room, he, unlike Prompto, didn’t care too much to dry or style his hair today, it was a wet limp mess, and he had it parted it to the side, instead of his usual, let his bangs fall in front of his eyes style. “So, you do have a forehead,” Prompto laughed as he grabbed his stuff from the living room and was shoving it into his bag.

“Hardy har,” Noct replied deadpanned, he looked over once his bag was zipped up. Prompto smiled, trying to get through his yogurt.

Noct was moving into the kitchen as well, Prompto was spooning up another mouthful but was shortly intercepted by Noct’s mouth. “Hey!”

“Ew, is that peach?” he groaned, mouth reluctantly chewing the granola.

“I wasn’t looking to share,” Prompto whined, his face going red with embarrassment, was this for earlier? Noct let out a laugh and went to look for the breakfast bars they kept in the cupboards.

“I thought whatever was yours, was mine now?” Noct smiled, unwrapping one of the too-sweet breakfast bars.

“Dude, that’s for like married couples, and like people in relationships,” Prompto turned around and went back to his yogurt, slightly smiling when he realized that Noct had gave him an indirect kiss by eating off his spoon.

“I mean, we’re a little married,” Noct laughed, his mouth still sounded full. Prompto groaned, he didn’t need this teasing especially since what had ran through his mind earlier. “C’mon, I’m kidding.”

Prompto finished up his yogurt and went to rinse the bowl out, “Yeah, maybe buy a ring and then we’ll talk,” he joked, “Probably get more student aid, I was married…” he trailed off, he’d remembered seeing a stupid post on one of his social media apps, that had hit a little too close to home

“I can afford one, just tell me which one you prefer,” Noct was definitely playing along with the dumb joke, he had laughed a couple of times as well, “And after that, my dad could probably pay your tuition.”

Prompto shoved him playfully, “I’m not gonna let you become my sugar daddy,” Prompto shook his head, heading for the front door. He grabbed his bags and slipped on his shoes, Noct wasn’t far behind.

“Well, I mean to be a sugar daddy would mean you would need to do something for me in return right?” Noct replied, opening the door letting Prompto go first.

“We’re not having this conversation before class Noct,” Prompto laughed, feeling slightly relieve that Noct didn’t feel to gross about the comment he had made to wake him.

“Listen,” He started as they walked down the steps of their apartment, “I’m just saying, you have to get your facts right.”

“Oh, you’re just correcting me on what it mean, no ideas whatsoever,” Prompto laughed, “How very ‘Ignis’ of you.”

Noct laughed as well, “Now there’s a guy who’s got it bad.”

“Him and Ravus? Yeah I would never have guessed,” Prompto replied, looking to his phone seeing if Aranea had responded yet. She hadn’t of course, he wondered when she headed to class.

“To be honest, that’s how I learned what a sugar daddy was,” Prompto looked up from his phone in confusion, about to ask what he meant, but Noct went on to further explain, “So, when they first started dating Gladio kept calling Ravus that, Ignis was very insistent that it wasn’t that, in anyway, at all, but Gladio used it to teased. I had to maybe look it up on the web afterward.”

“Were you that pure that you didn’t know what it meant?” Prompto laughed in disbelief.

Noct didn’t respond, a tiny bit of pink coming to his cheeks, “Listen, I was like, maybe in freshman year, you’re not much of a help when it comes to that, and I honestly thought it was just the person in the relationship that gave the other like, actually sugar. Cookies, cakes, and y’know brownies, whatever.”

Prompto burst out laughing, he was pretty sure Noct hit him a few times on the arm, but the whole idea that Noct had was so pure, he can’t believe he missed that. “Well, I can assure you now, that, that version is actually a lot more pleasant,” Prompto let out between laughs.

Noct smirked at him, they were nearing campus now, having a few moments to spare before class began. “So what, you’re saying you’d be my ‘literal’ sugar daddy?”

“How the hell did I become the one to give you sweets? You’re the one trying to propose to me?” he nudged into him playfully, it felt good to joke about this. “Besides, isn’t it always the older guy in the relationship that gives the stuff to the younger, barely legal girlfriend?”

“I’m only older than you by two months, that’s hardly fair,” He responded quickly, Prompto could tell there was a pout on his face just by the tone.

“How about I buy you a cake anyway, you didn’t let me on your birthday…” Prompto fake pouted as well, they had both been busy during that day so getting together was a little tough.

“Prompto, you were gone most of the night, who eats cake at 9pm?”

“You do,” he retorted quickly.

Noct huffed in response being sure to settle down once they got into their classroom, they found their usually seats and started unloading their supplies for the class. They joked around a bit more until the instructor walked in, being in the first week it was still a bit awkward for everyone and the instructor was still suggesting they play icebreaker games. Seeing as how it was a Psychology class and the instructor said it would be filled with discussion. They were supposedly to be covering topics on chapter one but the man talked too long about something he meant to cover in a later chapter. He only had a few moments to share a video that was related to chapter one that he had set up for this morning. It was almost done when it was time for class to be dismissed.

They both got up putting away their things and headed for the door, Prompto saw Noct messing with his bangs as they exited. “Tired of having a forehead already?” Prompto laughed as they walked to the next class they had together.

“Yeah, it’s a bit annoying,” Noct laughed back, holding his bangs down where he wanted them to be, usually his bangs would stick to his forehead when wet, he had impossibly straight hair so it wasn’t like it was unruly in anyway, but when he brushed them aside, his father’s genes of naturally wavy-ness took over and made impossible for them to stick.

“It’s a hard ‘Noct’ life,” Prompto joked, grinning at the shitty pun he made.

Noct did not appreciate it at all, and was staring at prompto with the most judgmental face that he could muster. Prompto only continued to smile, proud of his stupid joke.”Boo,” Noct responded to the joke a few minutes later, “That was so bad,”

“Cmon you know you loved it,” he grinned even wider, the smile definitely threatening to turn shit eating.

“No, no I didn’t,” Noct defended himself, though there was a slight smiled hidden amongst the judgment.

“Yes, yes you diiiid,” Prompto drawled out, poking at his friend’s sides, they had to stop walking and inch off the hallway to get out this stupid argument.

“Prompto, stop, I didn’t like it, it was a dumb pun,” his defense was waning, he started laughing at the pokes Prompto was teasing him with.

Prompto stopped and crossed his arms, another false pout forming on his face, “Well, _I_ thought it was _Pun_ derful.”

“Oh my god,” he groaned again, and walked ahead without saying another word. “You’re so embarrassing sometimes.”

“Well you’re the one who said you wanted to marry me, if this is a deal breaker,” Prompto joked, acting in false defense now.

“It might be, I don’t know how many of your puns I could take,” Noct replied shaking his head.

“Aww, it was such a well thought out plan to,” Prompto chuckled, “Well that’s too bad, I’ll have to find another way to help me pay my tuition then.”

“Wedding can be back on, only if you stop making puns.”

“Sorry, dude, no can do,” Prompto slapped Noct on the back lightly, “Puns are how I get through the school day, through life actually.”

“And we were gonna rent the whole resort and everything,” Noct sighed, but laughed after a few moments of pretending to be hurt over this.

“If you can’t accept me at my worst,” Prompto trailed off.

~~~

“You’re late!” Ravus called waiting out by the library’s entrance.

“Yeah, sorry, my last class ran long,” Prompto panted, he had sprinted across campus to arrive close to their meeting time, his legs definitely felt like jelly right now.

Ravus was the hardest for him to set up dance times with, since Ravus’ schedule was pretty hectic yet, Prompto didn’t know when a good time was for him to try and pencil himself in. Every time they did try, the like last three dances they did together, Prompto was here about 10 minutes early waiting for them to go to a location to shoot. It was mostly because, despite hanging out with the guy for a year, he was still slightly intimidated by everything Ravus had made himself out to be. Which, would make sense considering how Luna told him that he and Ignis were going for the same major, Business, and if that wasn’t a perfect fit. They both had the possibility of exuding the personality of terrifying businessman, Ravus just seemed to be getting in the practice now.

“Should we get going?” Prompto stumbled out, his shaking legs almost getting the best of him.

“Not yet, Luna said she wanted to join us today,” Ravus said looking at his phone, “She should be here shortly.”

Prompto nodded and sat on the steps, legs probably giving out finally. He checked his phone as well, it was strange, he didn’t see a text from Aranea all day. “Hey, Ravus?” he said looking up to the taller man.

“Yes?”

“Has Aranea messaged you at all?” Prompto asked, pointing to his phone, “I texted her this morning and I haven’t got a reply.

Ravus let out an annoyed groan, “Yes, yes she has, she and cindy apparently had off today. She’s been sending vulgar things.”

“Vulgar things?” Prompto repeated, not really understanding quite what that meant.

Ravus opened his mouth to reply, but Luna arrived to interrupt him, “Hello, sorry I’m late,” She smiled at them, “You’re being nice right?” she asked Ravus frowning at him.

“Of course,” Ravus sighed, a small teasing smile pointed at his sister, “When am I not?”

“A girl in the library by the health building said you made her friend cry.” Luna retorted matter-of-factly.

“There are no polite ways to turn down suitors,” Ravus explained, “I only told her I was accounted for. I’m not going to stake my relationship by not being blunt and honest.”

“I’m not denying that, Oh nevermind,” Luna brushed it off turning to Prompto who was still a little confused as to why Aranea wasn’t texting him back.

“Hey Luna?”

“Yes?”

“Has Aranea texted you at all today? Ravus was telling me she apparently had off, and I texted her this morning but….” Prompto trailed off, slightly lost in thought.

“Oh,” Luna let out, “Yes she has, but…. It’s nothing much to read… or listen to….”

Ravus cocked an eyebrow, “Listen to?”

Luna’s cheeks went a little pink, “She called me in class, probably accidentally… She’s very blunt.”

Ravus sighed, shaking his head, “We’re really going to need to talk with her about things.”

Luna shrugged the embarrassment washing away, “She’s living with her girlfriend, Ravus, don’t tell me if you had a day off, you and Ig-”

“Don’t,” Ravus interrupted, Prompto saw actual genuine embarrassment washing over his face, it wasn’t his usual angry kind that would appear in stream. It was like a normal person’s, one that would show through when talking about a crush or a lover.

Luna laughed back at him, “I’m just saying, you would probably understand her situation,” she turned to Prompto now, “Speaking of which, when she was free early, she was wondering why you were mad at her.”

“Ah….” Prompto let out, he wasn’t sure he wanted to Luna that specifically, especially not with Ravus right here.

“Did she do something to you this morning?” Luna asked, pressing for information.

Prompto looked down to the pavement, scratching the back of his head, ‘Well… um…”

“Did she say something to Noctis?”

“No, no….” Prompto paused, “It’s nothing really, it was a joke. Just a dumb joke.”

“That doesn’t seem like a joke,” Ravus interjected, he could tell he too would be staring at him with concerned eyes.

Prompto looked up to both siblings, “Can you guys please promise not to tell anyone, like anyone I swear. Like I’ll tell Aranea about this, about what happened but no one else, that means Iggy too.”

They exchanged looks, nodded and looked back to Prompto, “Of course,” Luna reassured.

“Well….” he started, standing from the steps, hesitating to actually recount about what happened this morning, but he gathered as much courage as he could and told everything that happened, from the almost kiss, Aranea interrupting them, and the whisper. He had fidgeted several times, only noticing slight facial changes in the siblings as they listened on.

“Oh, Prompto…” Luna commented after he had finished, she put a hand on his shoulder. Ravus remained quiet, but there was a slight sense of empathy coming from him, maybe an older brother instinct?

“Yeah, I’m just, I think….” Prompto kept stumbling, he didn’t know what he wanted to say. What he had almost done was unforgivable, and it made him worry that if one day he did get bold enough, what it might do to their friendship.

Ravus let out a long sigh, “To be young and dumb,” was all he said, Luna smiled up to him.

“Like you did any better,” She quipped, laughing slightly, looking back to Prompto, “I wish I could tell how proud I am that you didn’t actually do anything. That was dangerous though Prompto, and I want you to be able to tell him everything before you even think of doing that.”

“Would it have really mattered? I mean he-”

“Yes, Ravus it would have,” Luna cut him off, she glared at him, it seemed enough of a glare to make him adjust his stance and look away. She looked at Prompto again, “I’m also telling you this now, because I can only assume how Aranea is going to react, take it slow. Forcing yourself on him is only going to make him withdraw.”

“Really forcing him to do anything will make him run away” Ravus added.

Luna nodded, eyes still on Prompto, “Promise me, you won’t do anything more.”

“Of course,” Prompto nodded, he wanted to milk their friendship for as long as he could, before the eventual reveal of feelings and masked identities came crashing down on him. He wanted to love Noctis, and being his best friend seemed the ideal way of doing it. Maybe with ten years gone, Noct could develop something more that was something close to a crush. Maybe if he never told Noct about his dancing, maybe he could just love him, and not the idea of something behind the mask that moved their hips well.

“Well, I believe you two were going to dance today right?” Luna said bringing Prompto back from his thoughts. Ravus and Prompto nodded and went to scout a location.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone so much for reading!  
> And yeah, I made Noct and Prompto talk about the implications of what a sugar daddy was and wasn't, I really don't where it came from, but they seem the type to just talk about nonsense and tease each other for it.  
> The psychology btw was based on one of my teachers in college, he was kinda ramble on for a bit and then show us a video, it was hard to take notes somedays.  
> But anyway! if you wanna follow me on tumblr to ask more about this or any other fic it's @earltealord  
> You comments and Kudos mean the world to me


	7. Melancholic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto felt a pang of guilt hit his stomach. Of course Noct would be sad watching them all having fun together on stream. Especially, when two of them were childhood friends that he’s known forever. Prompto felt a little responsible for taking all their free time away, Noct was always either stuck at home, being forced to the gym with Gladio, or forced talking about business with Ignis. His fun times from high school went quickly out the door since graduation, and Prompto wasn’t helping at all.

**Ari:** You wanna tell how this is my fault?  
**P-to:** Besides always spouting off that I should throw myself at him

**P-to:** I think it’s nobody else’s fault but yours

**Ari:** I meant throw yourself at him when he’s awake

**Ari:** I didn’t think you would try and assault him when he was sleeping

**P-to:** It wasn’t assault!

**P-to:** Just a kiss

**P-to:** not like I did it anyway

**Ari:** I would have kicked your ass

**Ari:** While i’m mad that you two are taking your sweet time confessing

**Ari:** I don’t condone sexual assault

**P-to:** I wasn’t

**Ari:** Cindy and I had a long talk about our feelings

**P-to:** gonna do anything

**Ari:** By throw yourself at him, I met stop worrying about shit and confess

**P-to:** I mean…

**Ari:** I know you are pretty dumb with how you handle shit

**Ari:** But honest to gods, Prompto, I would never just want you to 

**Ari:** Just like suck his dick to say I like you

**P-to:** Aranea! 

**P-to:** How did a kiss become that in your mind

**P-to:** I swear I wasn’t gonna do anything!

**Ari:** Yeah

**Ari:** Next time Prompto, do it when he’s awake, so he can consent

**P-to:** You’re mad at me aren’t you?

**Ari:** Uh, duh

**Ari:** I honestly wouldn’t care if you blamed me for some stupid shit,

**Ari:** But you did it while he was asleep, what are you a shougo manga?

**P-to:** I…

**P-to:** I don’t know what happened okay

**Ari:** **(•ˋ _ ˊ•)**

**P-to:** Is there anything I can do to make it up?

**Ari:** Meet me for lunch tomorrow at that cafe we met at, 

**Ari:** The one near your old high school 

**Ari:** it’s your early day right?

**P-to:** Yeah? Is lunch gonna be the only thing?

**Ari:** Maybe… there’s a cute park there, maybe we can go on a date since  Cindy’s gonna be busy at her grandpa’s shop.

**P-to:** A date?

**Ari:** Just bring your mask too dummy, I gotta go, I got class in the morning

 

Prompto sighed and set his phone on his desk, Aranea was a little terrifying when she was mad. All the talk about assault and harassment made his mind feel ten times more guilty about what happened this morning. Maybe Aranea too, was working on become more “lawyer-like” as she told him frequently that she was taking criminal psychology for a reason. He was only now getting the blunt end of the stick. 

He laid on his desk, hunched over into his textbook, he definitely wasn’t going to be getting in any more studying after he got scolded by Aranea. He knew she was right about the whole thing, and despite her usual laid back persona, she was just as serious Ravus was, taking no bullshit when stuff made her angry. If he was being honest with himself, he was a little afraid of their lunch date tomorrow.

He got up from his desk and moved to exit his room, going to sit with Noct in the living room. He hadn’t mentioned what happened this morning at all even when he got back from hanging out with Luna and Ravus. He was just on the couch doing homework, still trying to catch up on their streams. “Heyaz,” Prompto called out to his friend who was focusing on the text in front of him. He looked up when Prompto called out, smiling at him.

“Hey, coming to join me?” he cleared off some of the couch and patted the cushion, Prompto nodded, went to sit, picking up his feet, and cuddled back against the seat. 

“Still watching these guys huh?” Prompto laughed focusing in on the stream, he wasn’t really sure when this was or where Noct had caught up to, but they were doing some stupid jelly bean taste test. 

“Of course,” Noct laughed, “It’s funny watching them be happy, besides I don’t get to see them in person all the time, I kinda just miss hanging out, yknow?”

Prompto felt a pang of guilt hit his stomach. Of course Noct would be sad watching them all having fun together on stream. Especially, when two of them were childhood friends that he’s known forever. Prompto felt a little responsible for taking all their free time away, Noct was always either stuck at home, being forced to the gym with gladio, or forced talking about business with Ignis. His fun times from high school went quickly out the door since graduation, and Prompto wasn’t helping at all.  “You also could, y’know, ask them to hang out,” Prompto laughed nervously, “We all do go to the same school.”

Noctis shrugged, he was copying down notes from the textbook sprawled in his lap. He didn’t seem overly hurt by the fact all his friends were drifting away from him, Prompto really wanted so badly to hug him. Noct wasn’t really all that into contacting people first, he had told Prompto several times, that he always felt like a burden, this extending even to his dad. 

Prompto snuggled closer to him, if he wasn’t going to study he could at least try to fall asleep early, Noct would probably wake him up when he decided to go to bed. “Hey Prom,” Noct started after he had settled in.

Prompto responded with a sleepy hum, and Noct decided to go on, “Do you think I’ll ever get to meet him?” he asked softly, there was a tinge of sadness, probably the acceptance that he’d probably never get to know who his crush was.

Prompto shrugged into him, “Dude, I don’t know. If he’s friends with Luna and Ravus, he has to live nearby, right?” he replied, before he realized what he said.

“Oh yeah, you’re…. Right,” Noct said slowly, a sudden wave of inspiration hitting him, Prompto felt him moving around on the couch.

“What are you doing?” he whined half apprehensive, opening his eyes to watch, he had pulled out his phone and was messaging someone. 

“I’m not a pillow dude,” Noct laughed, “I’m just seeing when I can hang with Luna, I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Uh… huh,” Prompto let out, still mostly apprehensive, and curious as to why he would get the sudden urge to message Luna.

Noct settled back to where he was so Prompto could get comfy again, and despite being worried about what would happen, Prompto let himself relax against his shoulder. Surely it was nothing, and he could just go back to chilling with Noctis. He had started falling asleep on Noct’s shoulder, letting the stream lull him to sleep tonight. It was probably about 45 minutes where he felt himself falling, startling him awake, but he wasn’t on the floor. 

At some point, Noctis had fallen asleep as well and had leaned over enough to where he was pinning Prompto to cushion of the couch. Prompto tried moving him, but Noct was really heavy when he slept. Prompto wasn’t the strongest guy to lift all his friend’s dead weight, especially stuck in an awkward position. “N-Noct,” Prompto struggled, still trying to lift his friend off.

And yet Noct didn’t move, Prompto tried reaching for the floor, grasping at the carpet to pull himself free, trying to escape the confines of his friend’s weight on him. But he had fallen asleep in a weird position and Noct was squishing his arms close to his body. Prompto let out a long sigh, of course this would happen, and there wasn’t much he could do to help his situation either. 

He debated just lying there trying to fall asleep again, but his body was betraying him. With his heart racing over the fact that Noct was pressed on top of him, his face being as close as it was this morning, sending heat to his cheeks. Of course along with those thoughts, came the words from Luna and Aranea. He promised he wouldn’t try anything, let alone when his friend was asleep. It wasn’t odd for them to end up like this, he had remembered in high school when Noctis had invited him over they frequently fell asleep on his father’s couch, only to find a blanket thrown over them when they awoke the next day.

And maybe, those thoughts are what finally calmed him down. Thinking about the past and how close they had been, spending all their time together playing dumb retro games. High school seemed like such a long time ago, despite them having only graduated in June. College had barely started, and already things were starting to feel different. Maybe it was just the sense of adulthood creeping up on them. But maybe, it had to do with their ever-shifting dynamics. Prompto had told himself that he wanted to remain Noct’s best friend, and he was committed to that. So why did he get panicked when they sleep together on the couch.

He didn’t have a good answer to that.

He only hoped that he wouldn’t ruin the good thing that they had. He certainly had the capacity to do so. He wasn’t sure if Noctis would forgive him from keeping the masked dancer’s identity a secret, he wasn’t sure he would forgive him for taking his friends away, and worst of all he wasn’t sure that, if he were to ever confess, Noct would ever even consider him a legitimate suitor. Sure, they joked around a lot about being together and marriage and whatever but they never brought up the fact that, it was possible. 

Prompto adjusted his position as best he could. He was sure he wasn’t getting any sleep that night.

 

~~~

Prompto stretched in the uncomfortable wooden chairs of the cafe, sleeping on the couch-in what was basically the fetal position all night, coupled with racing thoughts, with a mind that did not want to quit-was not a great idea. He had arrived here a little earlier than Aranea did, apparently her class ran a little longer than she wanted it to. So he got here by bus faster than he thought he would. When he arrived, he had ordered some ramen bowls and bubble tea for them both, and went to sit down. Which brought him to play the waiting game.

It was maybe ten minutes of almost falling asleep in the chair when Aranea arrived, greeting the workers behind the counter, finding Prompto and joining to sit with him at the table he chose. “Hey sorry I’m late,” She said, putting her bags down on the seat next to her, “We were talking about humanistic theories today, it went on way too long, cause apparently everyone had something to say. It wasn’t even an ethics class,” she laughed.

Prompto was a little lost, talking about humanistic theories and ethics, had him just confused, the jokes, totally just passing over his head. Aranea laughed again, seeing the look on Prompto’s face, “Don’t worry about it blondie. It’s probably gonna be covered when you get older.”

“Okay,” Prompto agreed still a little confused, but not awake enough today to even push for her to explain. 

“So,” She leaned forward on her hand, smirking a tad at him, “Why the exhaustion?”

He tensed, she was getting really good at telling when certain things were wrong about him, “N-no reason,” he stumbled out looking away, his nervous tick of playing with his hair when he was anxious or lying just had to kick in.

“Y’know… I’m not studying taking criminal psychology just to make myself feel better,” he heard her laugh, “There’s a reason, what did you do?”

Prompto gulped, he really knew that he couldn’t hide things from his friends. They were all taking fancy classes to know how read faces and know behaviors. It was something that any non oblivious person could pick up easy and if he was a smarter, not as oblivious guy as he was, he would maybe be able to read the telltale signs that his friend-in addition to having a crush on the masked dancer-had a really big crush on Prompto for the longest time. But of course, Prompto didn’t know this, he was dumb and oblivious to Noct and they way they moved around each other now. And it only made him feel that his own feelings were completely useless. “I just, slept weird last night,” he admitted rubbing his neck, trying to emphasize the soreness that had formed from sleeping on the couch.

“Oh?” Aranea smiled, the word drawn out in a semi-accusatory tone, “Did you now?”

“Yeah,” Prompto responded a little too quick, slightly cursing under his breath.

Aranea just stared at him, green eyes urging him to explain. Prompto shifted nervously in his seat. Her stare would definitely work on the future jury she would be working in front of. “I, I feel asleep on the couch…” he said slowly, “Noct and I were doing homework and we kinda slept there.”

“No weird stuff right? Like honest to gods sleep,” Aranea asked, trying to get Prompto to clarify. “Cause I swear Prompto if you did anything to that poor boy when he was asleep…” she trailed off.

Prompto’s face was slightly red, he wasn’t going to admit that he had thought about it. But that was when he was half asleep and needing to go to the bathroom, which he by passed by just snuggling back into his friend. “Yeah, no weird stuff, scout’s honor,” Prompto assured, emphasizing his words again this time with a raise of his right hand. Aranea let out a sigh of relief.

He opened her mouth to speak, but the server came by to drop off their food and tea, she waited until he left before actually saying what she was going to. “I’m still mad at you for almost doing what you did and to have the balls to blame me for it, you owe me big,” She said breaking apart the chopsticks and digging in, “I honestly didn’t think you had it in you.”

“I said I was sorry, alright,” Prompto sighed sadly, he thought after last night he’d be free from her lecturing, “I said I don’t what happened…” he paused looking to his bowl of noodles, “... But is that normal? To want to do that?”

Aranea shrugged, waiting until she swallowed her mouth full of noodles before speaking, “You’re young still, so I’m inclined to say yes, but that’s how some sexual assault cases happen.” She took a drink of her tea, “Everyone has the possibility to control themselves, it was mostly a lapse of judgment. I still don’t condone it.”

“Yeah, but…” He pause looking to his ramen, “He’s my friend, I shouldn’t want to kiss my best friend.”

“You also have a huge crush on said friend,” Aranea replied deadpanned, setting the spoon she was using to slurp the broth down, and waving her hand at him, “I know, I know, you want to stay friends with this guy. I still think it’s dumb. But if you can barely  hold yourself back for a little kiss, it might get worse. Feelings like these, if not reciprocated or told explicitly, they could get really ugly and ruin whatever you have.”

Prompto knitted his brows together, he was afraid of her saying that. He had thought of that possibility, he didn’t want to, but there was just a fear that he’d want to push on, and probably make Noct withdraw. “Especially since you two are living together, the intimacy might grow,” Aranea laughed softly, “But, who knows, it might not bother him, and he  _ technically  _ has a crush on you, so there’s not much room for drama happening.”

“Thanks, Aranea,” Prompto replied sarcastically, she was basically repeating his thoughts, the thoughts that he’d tried to keep down. Prompto could never let Noctis know about his feelings or his secret hobby, he wanted them to remain friends like they were in high school before Prompto had formed this dumb crush on his best friend. 

Aranea went back to eating, watching Prompto slowly eat as well, after she was about halfway done she finally spoke up, “It’ll be fine, y’know,” she said out of nowhere and Prompto looked up from his bowl, “He’ll probably find out sooner or later, he honestly cannot be that dumb to not recognize his best friend.”

Prompto shrugged, he wasn’t really sure how observant Noctis actually was, it had been since June where he found  and developed the crush on his dancing persona, and Noct really hadn’t mentioned anything about if he found out or not. He was still mentioning little things that he found out about him, and it was weird because apparently he was following his dance twitter, and mentioning how ‘P-to’ would say what foods, colors, and animals he preferred. Did, he never once think to tell Noctis that stuff? Surely anyone who knew him would definitely recognized there was no distinction between the two. “I’m, not so sure about that, Aranea,” Prompto laughed after finishing his mouthful, she looked to him with an amused smile, “He can be pretty dumb I think.”

Aranea was about to say something more when Prompto’s phone went off, he thought he had set the thing to silent during class, but he pulled it out instinctively and checked to see if it was a text. It wasn’t, fans were tweeting at him. He wasn’t sure when it had started, but he was getting mentions like crazy. They were all just the same question though, ‘do you have a gf, bf, someone you like, can you be my boyfriend, can I be your girlfriend’ type nonsense. It had gotten to the point where Prompto got annoyed and stopped replying. “What’s up?” Aranea asked trying to peer at his phone.

Prompto sighed, “Fans, I don’t know why they think i’d date someone I barely knew,” he laughed showing his activity feed to Aranea on his phone.

“They’re desperate, you’re young, they probably are too, you’re like one of the only single people in out group.” Aranea chuckled, “Despite people shipping us together anyway.”

“I’m pretty sure Ravus and I still hate you for the santa thing,” Prompto laughed, remembering the stream he and Noct had watched about a month ago. 

“Not sorry about that in the least, Ignis must have thanked me when he saw the video though,” Aranea smirked.

“Didn’t he kick you? From a chat he wasn’t even in?” 

“Details, Prompto,” Aranea she frowned, “But the twitter thing, how long has that been going on?”

Prompto sat back to think for a moment, sure he had always gotten like random confessions here and there, but he always played them off, recently maybe in the last few months he would have to say, the mentions and tweets at him got more relentless. “I don’t know, maybe like shortly after I moved? Maybe even before that?”

Aranea hummed in response, “Why don’t you just tweet that you have someone you like already?”

Prompto’s face went red and Aranea’s smirk grew at his response, “I-I can’t do that, way too private.”

“I didn’t say to tell people who it was, dummy” She playfully flicked a finger at his forehead, “Just say ‘Thank you all for your love but I’m afraid I already have someone who has taken my heart’ or y’know something mushy that only  _ P-to  _ would say.”

Prompto looked to his phone, it was still buzzing with notifications, he sighed and decided to do it. After the tweet was sent it took a few moments for a myriad of reactions to hit his timeline. Sad faces, happy faces, hearts, congratulations, and anger-Prompto was afraid of those ones. He looked to Aranea who smiled at him, “See,” She said pointedly, “It worked!”

Prompto smiled too, and went to finish his ramen, once done they both cleaned up their table and left a tip for the workers. “Is there a reason why I brought my mask today?” Prompto asked after a bit of walking. Aranea seemed determined to head to the park, she left her car in the parking lot. 

“You’ve been learning Childish War right?” she asked, browsing her phone as she walked.

“Uh, yeah,” Prompto replied, he probably had finished learning all the steps the other week when he had time, but he wasn’t sure he was confident to film it yet.

“I learned that like a month ago, Cindy doesn’t want to do it though, so you’re next best,” she laughed, Prompto only now took in her appearance. 

She was dressed actually cute today, nothing like her usual skin tight jeans and worn out tops. She had black stockings on, with cute black mid thigh shorts, with a matching black vest and white button down. Prompto sighed because he barely wanted to put his normal skinny jeans on today and threw an old screen tee on out from the pile of clothes he meant to put away. “Aranea this is why we plan things,” he groaned. If they were gonna do a cute matching outfit video he wanted to at least be warned before hand

“Relax,” She drawled out, reaching into her own bag to produce another white button down and a vest, “Here,” she said handing over the items.

“How…?” Prompto asked carefully, maybe she had kept them from a former boyfriend or maybe she was-

“I’m not cheating on Cinds, if that’s what you’re thinking,” she somehow knew, “I just had a phase where I refused to shop in the Women’s department,” she shrugged.

“Thanks,” Prompto said after a while, he really didn’t know what could be said, he stepped off to the side to change and get his mask on while Aranea set up. 

 

~~~

When Prompto arrived back at his apartment he heard sirens and shooting sounds coming from the tv. “Hey, sorry I’m late,” he said locking the door and walking to the living room area plopping down on the couch next to Noct.

He was enraptured in this third person shooter that allowed its players to legit do pretty much whatever they wanted to the town. Noct usually hated playing this game because the online mode sucked and if you played on a public lobby, people would kill you in an instant. It only served to make Noctis mad and he usually only played it to blow off steam. 

“Eeeeverything okay?” Prompto asked slowly looking between him and the game.

“Fine,” Noct hissed through gritted teeth.

“You sure dude? You look kinda pissed,” Prompto was a little concerned because he looked more frustrated than actual legitimate rage. 

“I said ‘I’m fine’” Noct half yelled, Prompto could tell that he definitely was not, ‘fine.’

“Come on dude, you talk to me about it,”

“No, no I can’t,” Noctis sighed, throwing the controller on the couch and getting up, “I’m going to bed, you can do whatever.”

Prompto sat dumbfounded at his friend’s mood. Did he do something wrong? Was his anger finally catching up to him after realizing that Prompto was an absolute weirdo? He just watched as Noct’s door slammed a little too loudly. What exactly happened to him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha whoops did I make it sorta sad? That's fiiiine, everything'll be fiin
> 
> Also I'm kinda filling out what all the older kids majors are, so far I'm set on Aranea being a lawyer, Ravus and Ignis going into business, Luna i'm debating being a therapist or child psychologist, Cindy's obvi like into engineering, and Gladio is probably going to study sports health (probably wants to be a physical therapist) the two freshies Prompto and Noct I have no idea lol
> 
> Anyway! thanks so much for reading! As all always you can find me on tumblr @earltealord  
> As always comments and kudos are also met with such happiness, thank you all for the support!


	8. Meltdown

Noctis was acting weird, the few weeks after the lunch date with Aranea. He hadn’t put on a stream, he was always sort of grumpy, and wasn’t as talkative about the dance group as he was before. It was like he was suffering through a breakup, but Prompto wasn’t aware of anyone he was seeing. He would have asked, but every time Noctis looked at him it was with an icy cold stare that told him to ‘shut the fuck up’. He wasn’t in the mood for talking, and probably didn’t mean to take it out on him. Prompto really wanted to cheer him up somehow. 

Instead, he spent most of his time in his room, because being around Noct right now, was, something he was kinda afraid to do. He had always handled emotions of other people weirdly, and never really said the right things. Noct also wasn’t great at talking about things so they kinda were a mess when it came to comforting each other when they were upset. That, and coupled with the fact that Prompto got a little bit of anxiety when hanging around angry people, or especially when people were mad at him.

They were nearing the end of their first month of classes, Prompto was glad he had finally gotten used to their schedule, and he was also enjoying that the group had decided to space out their live streams, giving him time for homework and learning new dances. They were all learning the choreography for  _ Skeleton Orchestra and Lilia _ , a group dance they all wanted to do together. They had found corresponding outfits and where renting out a place that had a really cool backdrop for the video.

He focused all his energy on dancing, and he was sure he was going to be ready for the filming this upcoming weekend. They had several long group chats about when to get there and how to get there. Luna had assure everyone that everything would go smoothly, that everything had been handled by her and Ravus. He wasn’t so much worried about that, as he was his current home life, but he wasn’t going to tell anyone in chat about that.

 

~~~

“See ya, I’m heading out for a bit,” Prompto waved to his friend on the couch, who responded with a small grunt and noncommittal nod. Prompto frowned but left the apartment to hop in Aranea and Cindy’s car. 

They had offered him a ride to the venue saying that it would take him too long by bus or train, seeing how it was across town, driving was much easier. “Hey there hun,” Cindy greeted as Prompto was buckling up, slightly turning around her chair to face him. 

“Hey Cinds,” He saw a slight eye roll from Aranea in the rearview mirror, probably not happy of his casual use of her nickname.

“You looked stressed, everything okay?” Cindy asked, it was amazing how all his group could read him like a book.

He shrugged, “School stuff, I guess.”

“You guess?” Aranea scoffed, flicking her eyes to him in the mirror, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Prompto mulled it over, it probably wouldn’t hurt for him to tell them, “Well,” he started, though, he might only get scolded by the both of them, and he didn’t need the extra nerves before the shoot, “Can I tell you later?”

Cindy adjusted herself so she was sitting correctly in her seat and looked to Aranea who exchanged a quick look, “Fine,” she said after a moment or so, letting the topic die down.

They started chatting about something else really quickly, switching from school to the dance they were about to do, and what they had in mind for the anniversary stream. With the talking, it seemed like a very short quick ride, but in reality it was probably around a 20-30 minute drive from his place. They found parking and all got out of the car. Trying to find the room Luna had set up for them, the building was really weird, and resembled an old castle on the outside, it wasn’t much of a surprise, Insomnia had a rich history of former kings and gods linked to it. But that was boring history stuff Prompto never paid much attention to. 

“So, when are Ravus and Luna getting here?” Prompto asked walking the halls with the other girls.They were being led by an attendant, Prompto swore he had seen once or twice, but his memory was failing him at the moment. 

“They said they were picking something up, said they might be a few minutes late,” Aranea responded, examining the walls around her.

Prompto responded with a hum of acknowledgement, and the attendant, a brown haired guy with shaved sides and what looked to be either beauty marks or tattoos spotted on his face, lead them toward their room. “I think this is the room, Miss Nox Fleuret requested,” He said the words with a smile, ushering them in.

The room was a soft yellowish ivory, with black and white checkered floors. It was really a good choice for them to dance in. (Good job Luna!)

“So, she’s going to be late then,” the attendant questioned, Prompto could sense slight disappointment hitting his tone of voice. 

Aranea nodded, smiling at him, “You’ve got business?”

The attendant laughed, “She was very, charming, when I was showing her rooms,” he smiled a nervous smile, “I was wondering if I would be able to speak to her again.”

Aranea was keen on playing big brother for Luna, in lieu of Ravus’ absence, “So you want her number or something? Score big?”

The attendant let out a nervous chuckle, “Please, I hardly know her, but I know she’s LuLu.” he looked around to everyone, “I know who you all are, I know you all dance.”

Prompto tensed because he forgot to put on his mask when he got out of the car, and due to the outfits, he only had one of the surgical style face masks that wouldn’t ruin the aesthetic of the video. He was feeling really vulnerable that some random guy knew them, let alone him, and his true identity.

“Oh yeah, sorry, name’s Nyx,” He laughed, eying Prompto, “Probably almost gave this one a heart attack.”

“Ohhh,” Aranea let out, the realization washing over her face, “Right, I’ve seen some of your stuff. You’re pretty good, I’m sure Luna’ll love you.”

Nyx let out a small laugh, “Well, that’s the plan,” Prompto let the conversation subside to background noise, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

It was a text from Luna.

 

**LuLu:** Please, put your mask on now.

**LuLu:** We’ve arrived and we’ve got a shitty surprise for you

**LuLu:** (◞ ‸ ◟ㆀ)

 

Prompto was a little confused about what that could mean. He knelt down anyway to grab his mask, affixing it around his ears making sure it was held tight around his face. Nyx looked at him in confusion for a second but went right back to talking with Aranea. Cindy was approaching him and putting a hand on his arm, “Everything ok?” she asked probably wondering why Prompto took to putting on his mask so early. 

He was going to respond, going to tell Cindy about the text that Luna had sent, but the siblings arrived and Prompto’s eyes felt like they were gonna pop out of his skull. He retreated toward the changing area of the room so fast, he was sure Cindy had to do a double take to register he was gone. 

Prompto peeked from the curtain to see Noctis, black hair, black sweats, black sweater, standing next to Luna, talking with her before looking around the room. When Cindy finally saw where Prompto was peeking out, she picked up his bag and walked over, squeezing in with him to talk. “Yeah, so he’s here,” She said matter-of-factly. 

“Yeah he’s here! What is he doing here?? Why?!” Prompto asked in a panicked whisper, he had pulled down his mask so he could freak out properly.

“Hun, I don’t know, maybe Luna invited him?”

“Why would she do that? Are they dating?” Prompto’s mind was racing, he knew his second question was stupid, because one: he shouldn’t care if his best friend was dating his childhood friend and probably logical crush, even if that was the case. But he knew it wasn’t, because two: he knew they would never get together, because Luna had specifically said that she wasn’t interested in Noct, like at all, since he told her something in high school.

“Prompto, you know that ain’t likely,” Cindy shook her head, she was kneeling down to grab his outfit from his bag, “Just get dressed, and I’ll ask Luna.”

Prompto nodded, he knew he wanted to trust Luna wouldn’t take Noct away but he really only knew her well for maybe 2 years. Maybe this was her secret plan all along and all she wanted was to get Noct back from him. Well, steal would probably be a better word for it, Noct would’ve had to been his in the first place to take him back.

He got dressed quickly and exited the changing area, he was fiddling with the button on his butler uniform they had commissioned someone to make for the group. He was sure to pull the mask over his face again and was standing as far from Noct as possible pretending to examine the room-he was really staring off into space, screaming internally. The girls had gone to get ready after he was done, Ravus and Noct were talking about something on the other side of the room. He made a mental note to thank Ravus a million times over for distracting him. 

He felt a hand on his shoulder and he nearly jumped into the ceiling, but it was Nyx, “You seem on edge, you cool?” he asked, Prompto was probably gonna have to thank him as well for trying to comfort him, because he was very on edge and nerves were just piling into his stomach.

Prompto nodded, he wanted to yell, but since Noctis was here he couldn’t he could talk to anyone, he couldn’t be comfortable. “Listen, if that kid’s a fan, you should probably introduce yourself right? He can’t be all that bad.” Nyx said, but he had really no idea what was going on.

Prompto shook his head fervently, trying to get the point across that he wasn’t interested in going anywhere near Noctis at the moment. Nyx was going to speak again, before Luna and Cindy came to his sides, “Sorry, Nyx if you could excuse us,” Luna said pulling Prompto by the arm towards the changing areas again.

Their maid uniforms were cute, each girl had something slightly different about each of their outfits though, Luna had a blue bow in her ponytail, Cindy had a giant red one that was hot glued to a headband so it would stick out more, and Aranea fixed her hair into two cute buns on her head, wearing a tiny hat instead of a bow. Prompto would have admitted to himself he liked the idea of being dragged away by maids, a moment of bless before he realized that Noctis was still in the room with him. He turned his face slightly to see Ravus excuse himself and walk toward the changing rooms too, leaving Noct alone to wander the room. 

Ravus didn’t join in the cluttered, cramped space behind the curtain Luna had dragged him in, he was going to get ready, but Aranea and Cindy joined behind them. “Listen,” Luna started, a hushed harsh whisper, “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she explained, “He had texted me out of the blue one night, asking if he could come by and see what a group dance day was like, what was I supposed to say?”

“How about, we don’t like people intruding on our group stuff? Or I would invite you but the reason P-to hides his face is because he has severe social anxiety. C’mon Luna, I thought you were the smart one,” Aranea shot back in an equally harsh whisper.

“Look, I know, I screwed up,” Luna sighed, “He started by asking me if we could hang out and I said yes, I hadn’t be able to do so since I was a freshman in high school! Then he blindsided me with asking if he could come with, I couldn’t just say no.”

“Uh, yeah you could have,” Aranea corrected accidentally using a normal voice.

“Shh,” Cindy shoved her, “Listen, I’m more worried about Prom-” she sighed, “About P-to. There’s no way he can keep his secret. If we were really going to be supportive about this, we were gonna let him confess on his terms.”

Prompto really wanted to speak up, but the girls were going back and forth so fast he was getting whiplash. The curtain opened with Ravus on the other side, in a butler uniform similar to Prompto’s, “We can’t undo what’s been done. He’s here now, if Prom- If P-to wants, he can avoid him the entire time he’s here. But that will probably only make him hate you more.”

Prompto stared up at Ravus, the question of more pooling on his face, it wasn’t until Luna asked him to clarify that he explained, “I was speaking with him. He said, after he saw the P-to had sights for someone else, he got irrationally angry, and may have said he hated him a bit.”

Prompto sighed, it was because of that tweet, he started hitting Aranea hard on the arm, “Ow, Ow! Stop it,” She tried to grab his fists, “Listen, I didn’t know he was following you!”

Luna let out a tiny laugh, Prompto eyed her next, “I have a bodyguard,” Luna said through a smile, Prompto looked toward Ravus who was rolling his eyes. “No, but it’s cute, he probably hates that you like someone. He doesn’t even know you mean him.”

Prompto sighed in defeat, Noct was pretty dense wasn’t he. 

“Hey, is this all you guys do?” Noct’s voice sent a jolt through his spine, and the nerves started kicking in once more. 

Ravus left the area first, “Sorry, we needed to have a private chat about something,” He answered the question, Luna and Aranea following after.

Cindy stayed back to escort Prompto out, holding him by the arm, being his buffer. When he gathered the courage to look at Noct, he could see his normal crooked smile while talking with Ravus and Luna. He introduced himself to Aranea and then looked to Cindy, and the smiled was gone.

In another world maybe, there would have been a time where Prompto was all about her. He would definitely be envious of anyone who got to date her, but this was not that world. Yet they still looked totally together. With Cindy’s arm wrapped around his and the way she was pressing into him-for support, so his nerves didn’t make him collapse-made it look all to obvious that the two were engaged in a relationship somehow. 

Maybe Noct missed the part where Aranea said that she was Cindy’s girlfriend, maybe she forgot to mention it all together, and went with ‘I used to be Ravus’ classmate in highschool’ to introduce herself instead. Either way, he was not happy, he could recognize the look of jealousy on his friend’s face and was certain this wouldn’t turn out well. “Hiya, hun,” Cindy greeted in here all too natural way of being cheery, “Haven’t seen you in a while, looking handsome.”

“Hey,” was all Noct replied, and he didn’t even look when Prompto gave a shy wave. He turned around and went to take a seat behind the camera.

“Oh shit,” Cindy whispered, “Shit, fuck shit.” It was weird hearing her curse so much, but she seemed to realize how it might have looked to Noct. With the recent news of the tweet, and Noct’s direct reaction of anger and jealousy, hanging on to Prompto like she was just probably made it worse.

“Okay guys, we should probably get started, Pr-P-to can you line up the shot?” Luna said, pointing Prompto to move behind the camera. 

He moved slowly, afraid to enter into Noct’s space, but Noctis hardly noticed as he was on his phone. Prompto could feel the heat from his cheeks being absorbed into the black fabric of the mask and he knew he was sweating. But he focused as best he could lining up the shot making sure everyone fit well on frame. Prompto was usually in charge of tech stuff so the camera work, the music, sometimes the editing was mostly for him to do, the others started doing a warm up, some other dance they all new, Prompto was playing the song through the portable speaker they had and was watching through the screen as they danced along to the music.

He wasn’t sure when it happened, but Noct somehow got over his grudge and came to talk to him, “Hey,” he said casually, Prompto’s whole body jumped from the sudden break in silence. “Listen, I-sorry about earlier.”

Prompto looked at him, it was hard to hide his emotions with just the half mask he was wearing, Noct could probably see the fear in his eyes. “I know that was pretty…. Shitty of me, I don’t even know you,” he laughed, he stuck his hand out, trying to seem friendly, “Noctis.”

Prompto took his hand, it was such a rigid thing to do, he already knew who he was, what his favorite movies were, what his favorite song was, where he liked to eat out, his favorite games, it felt so weird being introduced again. They gave a little shake and Noctis looked at him expectantly, after few moments Prompto shook his head realizing exactly what Noct wanted him to do. He pulled away and made an ‘X’ with his forearms, making sure he knew that he couldn’t, that he wasn’t going to. “Not even to say your name?” Noct asked his face falling, he sighed and mussed up his hair, it was a gesture that made Prompto’s grow even more flustered. He wondered if Noct could see how red his face was. 

“Hey P-to! We're starting now!” Aranea saved him again, he looked away from Noct to nod at her and check the camera's alignment once before heading over to everyone else. 

They starting marking spots where they needed to be, and each reviewed their individual moves. Prompto ran over to select  song and ran back toward the group, trying not to catch Noct’s eye. 

 

~~~

He was pretty sure he messed up, but everyone was really pleased with the footage. Even Noctis, who Luna had called over to take a look was smiling at it. 

Prompto was inching away toward Cindy and Aranea, this probably wasn’t helping the fact Noct probably though he and Cindy were together. But Prompto’s heart felt like it was about to explode whenever he was near him.

They had a few more dances they could film, Prompto jumped in and out whenever he didn't know the song. Which left him to be on camera duty, by Noctis. He wasn't really talking anymore, their first interaction probably had made him reconsider his crush. 

Prompto didn't want to look away from the camera though, he could feel eyes in the back of his head, boring a way into his skull. He heard feet shuffling behind him and Noctis peer over his shoulder to look at the camera. “It's pretty cool you know how to do this type of stuff,” he said, Prompto's reactions were betraying him because instead of running away he stood still blushing over the fact that his face was so close. 

He nodded at Noct’s compliment, slightly smiling with his eyes. When he turned his head Noct’s cheeks were pink, he was moving back now, turning his head away from him, Prompto heard a mumbled ‘shit’ coming from his mouth. 

Prompto stared at him for a while, wondering if he was gonna say anything more, but he didn't, only stood next to him, embarrassed, looking off to the side. It was kind of cute, all things considered. “Sorry, but can you stop staring at me,” Noct said moving his gaze to the floor. Prompto was confused, did he do something wrong? 

Noct wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, “I can't, focus really when you do,” Prompto tilted his head, “You, you have really pretty eyes.” 

Prompto's eyes went wide and he looked away immediately before he could see Noct slap a hand over his mouth and walk away. Prompto looked to Cindy staring daggers at his until she realised he needed help. He saw Aranea notice him first and point Cindy in his direction. When she finally reached him, his face was probably fully flushed. “You alright hun?”

Prompto shook his head, looking back at Noct who still had a hand over his mouth, looking just as embarrassed as he felt. Cindy laughed softly, and said quietly to Prompto, “What happened?” 

Prompto let out a very small whisper, “He said I have really pretty eyes.”

Cindy smiled, and looked over to Noct, taking in how flustered he was, saying softly again to Prompto, “Well, you know he doesn’t hate you enough to stop liking you.”

Prompto shoved Cindy a tad, she only continued to laugh. He looked back toward Noct, but he was frowning at them now. Cindy smiled over at him, “Is that anyway to greet an old friend?” she laughed, not hesitating to walk over to him. 

“Sorry, I just…” Noct moved to scratch the back of his head, “It’s been a weird couple of weeks…. That’s your boyfriend?” he asked gesturing his chin towards Prompto.

“You’re worse than Prompto was,” Cindy laughed, Prompto make a soft groan, “P-to’s just a close friend.”

“You mean you’re not-?”

“Not dating him, yes. Aranea is my girlfriend though, before you start getting any idea sug’” She laughed, and his face lit up, smiling now.

“Believe I wouldn’t even think of it,” Noct looked to Aranea, “And, not only because she looks like she could kick my ass.”

Cindy laughed with him again, “That she could do.”

Noct face fell, “But he still likes someone right? It says on his twitter.”

Cindy looked back to Prompto who was making himself look busy, eavesdropping anyway. “I’m not sure hun, it could just be a fake thing, he was getting bombarded with people wanting to date him. Probably just said it to get them off his back.” 

“So, you’re saying he’s still single?” Noct asked, Prompto lifted his head, this was bad.

“I’m saying, that he could be,” Cindy corrected.

Noct was silent for a moment and Prompto wanted to turn around and really see what his face was doing. “So, hey why doesn’t he speak?” He asked after a bit, “Trying to have a conversation with him is hard.”

Prompto sighed to himself. “Oh, he’s just getting over a bad cold, throat stuff, he wanted to dance anyway,” Cindy lied, Prompto turned his head to look at her. That would probably only make Noct want to come back, see them film when he was healthy.

“Oh,” Noct replied casual, he caught Prompto staring at him and and Prompto looked away immediately. “He’s…. Kinda a weird guy… Isn’t he?”  
“Oh hun, you don’t know the half of it,” Cindy laughed and Prompto glared at the back of her head. They weren’t lying, but he was getting insulted when he was right there.

“He’s…. Cute though,” Noct barely said, Prompto stopped glaring at Cindy and focused on Noct. “I feel a little guilty, but he kinda reminds me of Prompto, I guess, I’m projecting huh?”

Prompto could tell both he and Cindy had the same face, just wide-eyed shock, tense that Noct would even think to say that. Prompto wanted to collapse and just curl up into a ball, he had been figured out. “Projecting?” Cindy pushed, Prompto could swear she was trying to kill him.

“Yeah, um…. I guess, cause Prompto’s gone a lot, so… I feel like… I know him more.” Noct let out a sigh, “It’s kinda hard to explain.”

“I think I get it,” Cindy affirmed, but Prompto didn’t. Why would Noct project that his dance persona was him? What did that even mean.

“Thanks Cindy,” Noctis replied, Prompto was still so lost, “Oh, and sorry about earlier…”

“It’s okay hun, I didn’t know you’d get that jealous,”

“I wasn’t….” Noct tried to defend himself.

Apparently there is a look that Cindy is giving him that stops him, because he just doesn’t say anything else. 

 

~~~

“I told you you could change there, I don’t know why you’re freaking out,” Aranea sighed waiting for Prompto to exit the backseat.

After they were done with filming Prompto dragged aranea and Cindy out of there as quick as possible after they were done changing. He wanted to get home before Noct did, and didn’t want him to realize that the sweats and t-shirt he had left in were the same ones that P-to dressed down into. So here he was struggling with the little space that was given to him. “Because Aranea,” Prompto said with a struggle, he was trying to get his sweats back on, “If I were to dress down into the exact thing I was wearing when I left the apartment, I’d be a dead man.”

“He said you were cute,” Cindy stated, trying to make Prompto realize that Noct probably didn’t care at this point, “He said he sees you as, well you. It would legit not make any difference to let him know now.”

Prompto was now slipping on his t-shirt, “Do you know how mad he’d get?” He opened the cardoor, “If I was to tell him after he basically said he knows.”

“Well, he didn’t really call you ‘Prompto’ so… He could just be seeing P-to as another dude that looks like you,” Aranea shrugged, not going for the driver side door.

Prompto sighed and closed the backdoor again, “I... “ he couldn’t finish his thought.

“You know he’s interested in you, which is good, Prompto, hun, you really gotta tell him.” Cindy said now in the front, looking back at him.

Prompto nodded, “I know, I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double the chapters today, cause I wanted to  
> Also they place they're dancing at are like those Japanese photoshoot buildings that cosplayers can go to for a good background/setting  
> and their outfits and really most of the thing they're doing is based off the skeleton orchestra choreography from Mium and Boop Boop Bee  
> As always, thanks so much for reading!  
> Comments and Kudos are met with love!  
> and If you want to support me in anyway you can follow me on tumblr @earltealord


	9. Love Timer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He may have spent a good portion of the early afternoon trying to figure a good way to tell Noct his feelings. It wasn't something he was used to thinking about, because he usually focused on hiding his feelings. But, Luna and Cindy were expectant of him.

Prompto was awoken by his phone’s notification sound, it was someone direct messaging him on twitter. He palmed his bed to find his phone, and winced when the bright screen threatened to blind him.

 

 **NoctGar:** Hey it was nice meeting you today

 

The sleep shook off him right away, he recognized the icon of a stupid selfie they took at Galdin, and the gods awful twitter name Noct chose to keep.

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** You’re the guy from the filming right?

 **NoctGar:** Yeah, I came with Luna and Ravus

 **NoctGar:** I’m not gonna using their dance names because they’re ridiculous

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Idk, LuLu and Rae sound pretty cute

 **NoctGar:** I’m never going to call Ravus Rae

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** He’s cute as Rae tho, you should take to calling him that

 **NoctGar:** Do you have a thing for Ravus?

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I am insulted

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** (๑•̀ㅁ•́๑)✧

 **NoctGar:** chill

 **NoctGar:** I’m just saying cause Ravus has a boyfriend

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I’m not interested in Rae

 **NoctGar:** Luna then?

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Nope~

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** She’s like a big sister to me really

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I can assure you I'm not gonna tell who I like

 **NoctGar:** so you do like someone **…**

 **NoctGar:** can you at least tell me your not seeing them?

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** (´･ω･`)?

 **NoctGar:** pls

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** mmmmmm, only because you called my eyes pretty

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** No, I’m single

 **NoctGar:** (ヾ;￣▽￣)ヾ

 **NoctGar:** u heard that huh

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** You did say it right to my face

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Don’t worry about it

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I’m flattered tho

 **NoctGar:** Oh? I mean I thought you hated it

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I mean, I hear it a lot

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I didn’t know my eyes had that effect on people

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** (*^▽^*)b

 **NoctGar:** I’m glad

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** (ﾟ▽ﾟ｀*)?

 **NoctGar:** That ur not w/someone

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** (๑•́ ₃ •̀๑)

 **NoctGar:** What?

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** You’re cute you know that?

 **NoctGar:** I

 **NoctGar:** Hhu

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** You’re confessing right?

 **NoctGar:** …

 **NoctGar:** Idk…

 **NoctGar:** can I ask you something?

 **NoctGar:** Sorry if it seems weird, I just feel really comfortable talking with you

 **NoctGar:** For some reason….

 **NoctGar:** I was wondering if you ever got a crush on a friend?

Prompto stared at the message for a long while. What did it mean? Was he talking about Luna? Or someone else? Iris? No Gladio would kill him. He was trying to think of what to say when his phone went off again.

 **NoctGar:** P-to?

 **NoctGar:** Sorry, Idk

 **NoctGar:** I just, there’s someone I like and they’ve been a close friend forever

 **NoctGar:** But, I also

 **NoctGar:** I feel like I’m being a bad friend, they probably think I don’t care about them

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** How long have you two been friends?

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I’m sure she would know that you still care right?

 **NoctGar:** Its, Uh

 **NoctGar:** Not a girl

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Oh

Oh, was right. Was Noct getting close to Gladio? Maybe that was his friend crush. Prompto guessed it would make sense, they had been friends forever, and Prompto was not above admitting that Gladio was nice looking too.

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Well, I’m sure he would know

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** If you two had been together for a very long time

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** You shouldn’t worry about it

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Right?

 **NoctGar:** Idk, he’s kinda of dense

 **NoctGar:** I think I must have turn him off too

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** What do you mean?

 **NoctGar:** Well, I kinda

 **NoctGar:** ugh, like you

 **NoctGar:** pls don’t block me

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Wasn’t gonna

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** But okay

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Does your friend know?

 **NoctGar:** Yeah

 **NoctGar:** I kinda made it obvious

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** How so?

 **NoctGar:** He watches streams with me

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** You told him?

 **NoctGar:** Kinda

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Have you told him you liked him?

 **NoctGar:** ….. No

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** ヾ( ･`⌓´･)ﾉﾞ

 **NoctGar:** Huh?

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** You should tell your friend you like him

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Confess

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** It’ll be the best way to let him know you care

 **NoctGar:** you sound like you know all about this

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I’ve practically wrote a book on it

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** I wish you the best of luck with your crush!

 **NoctGar:** But you’re my crush

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Your other crush silly

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Your friend

 **NoctGar:** So you’re rejecting me?

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** No~

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** We can be friends!

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** As payment for me giving you advice

 **NoctGar:** It’s because I was mad at you

 **NoctGar:** I thought you were dating Cindy

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Nah, CiCi’s cool, but I don’t think i’d ever date her

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** Ari would kick my ass

 **NoctGar:** Aranea? Yeah, she seems terrifying

 **P-to** **(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ:** If you get her angry she’s so much worse

 **NoctGar:** i bet

 **NoctGar:** hey, thanks for giving me a second chance

 **NoctGar:** And the advice

 

Prompto wasn’t sure when he had passed out, Noct’s first message came around 230 in the morning, he was beyond tired from all the nerves and dancing. He was glad he was able to deter some of Noct’s feelings for him, and had passed down advice. Though, now that Noct basically said that he also liked someone else now, that person being one of Noct's closest friends,confessing that he was masked dancer seemed a lot less intimidating.

 

Well, at least it'd get one thing off his back. He could probably find someone else when Noct got the courage to confess to Gladio. He was there to support Noct no matter what, but despite saying that, he still would have a heartache whenever he'd think about it the next morning, and days following.

Speaking of mornings, he was so glad it was Sunday, after being awoken by Noct at 2am he was able to sleep in til noon that day. He only roused when he felt Noct's hands shaking him awake. “Hey Prom, wake up,” his voice was weirdly delicate, and Prompto was glad he was a light sleeper, he awoke right away.

He opened his eyes just before Noct was going to join him in his bed, “What are you doing?” Prompto laughed, he didn't want to admit that his cheeks went flushed as soon as he lifted up his blanket.

“Thought you were gonna nap all day,” Noct was paused holding up the blankets about to slide in, “was gonna join you.”

“Noct you have your own bed,” Prompto sat up smiling at his friend who put the blanket down, and adjusted himself to stand next to the bed.

“Yeah, well,” Noct moved a hand up to scratch his head.

“A _bigger_ bed I might add,” Prompto continued chuckling, he swung his feet over the edge and stood, stretching out his muscles still sore from yesterday's events.

“So, nap days are reserved for my room only?” Noct smiled, moving the hand from his head to around his neck.

“Sure,”he responded casually, he swore he could see a faint blush hitting Noct's cheeks. He would have wondered more about that, but his stomach focused more on getting breakfast and let out a large grumble. It was Prompto's turn to blush.

Noct let out a laugh, “Come on, i think we have waffles in the freezer.”

 

In the next few days of school Noct was weirdly nice to him. He was always surprised when Noct would be ready with breakfast in the mornings. (Well, it wasn't a fresh cooked meal. Noct swore off cooking with the stove after a freak frozen pizza accident almost sent his dad’s kitchen up in flames. But frozen waffles and microwavable hashbrowns were good enough)

Really what was most surprising, was that Noct was waking up on time to prepare this for Prompto each day. Even though he looked tired as all hell. By the weekend, Noct was suffering from “lack of sleep” and decided he wanted to cash in on a nap day. He remembered how Noct looked at him, a slight beg in his face, meaning that he wanted Prompto to join in. And Prompto was halfway debating on it, but they had their anniversary stream planned for today and he wanted to be awake before noon.

“Tomorrow, okay buddy?” Prompto laughed seeing his friend pout curled up in his comforter.

“Remember, you promised,” Noct barely said, sleep was already taking a hold of him. Prompto would have tried to say something more, but Noct was already gone, a soft breathing coming from the cocoon of blankets.

Prompto laughed and decided to bide his time with video games, but it got pretty boring after awhile, so he just turned on youtube while scrolling through his phone. Everyone,was pretty excited for the anniversary stream, fans especially. They had worked out some things they could do as treats, and giveaways. Basically, Luna handled everything, she had a real knack for business type stuff, it made Prompto wonder why she wasn't going into business like her brother.

He choose some podcast to play in the background, and continued to scroll through his friends social media now. Luna was posting a lot of pictures with her and the Nyx guy they met at the place they danced last week. It went from pictures of just him in soft restaurant lighting to them taking selfies together while at a park, or café. Apparently they had started going out. He would have question otherwise, seeing how all of the pictures kind of were reminiscent of his and Noct’s posts, but he found a picture where they were kissing and it may have sealed the deal.

There was a pang in his heart seeing how Luna was able to find someone so fast, and he was still struggling over a 5 year crush. And now that crush was even more worthless, because Noct liked someone else, so confessing probably just seemed stupid to do.

Noct would never return feelings, and Prompto felt a little guilty because of that. If only he confessed a bit sooner, maybe, just maybe Noct would be his boyfriend right now. He would be gladly sleeping in his bed, resigned to a nap day, and they wouldn't have to worry about anything else.

And sure Prompto knew his feelings for his friend would still be there, but now he couldn't act on them. He would only hope that the feelings of wanting him, would slowly turn back into platonic friendship stuff. Like they were used to.

Pushing off the weird sentimental mood he was getting into, he closed down the app and opened his texting app. Find Luna's contact and sent her a message.

 

 **Prompto:** Hey, congrats on hitching Nyx!

 **Luna:** Good morning Prompto

 **Luna:** Tired of using the messenger app i see?

 **Prompto:** No well… idk this seemed more personal?

 **Prompto** : idk, but still congrats!

 **Luna:** Thanks! How are things over in… Promptis land?

 **Prompto:** Promptis?

 **Luna:** a combination of your names, Cindy said you were going to confess?

 **Prompto:** Oh, about that

 **Luna:**?

 **Prompto:** He likes someone else

 **Luna:** Are you sure?

 **Prompto:** Yeah, long story short, he kinda told me he likes someone else.

 **Prompto:** okay, well he told P-to, but yknow

 **Luna:** he told P-to?

 **Prompto** : Yeah, he messaged me (him?) Through Twitter. Told me he has a crush on a friend.

 **Luna:** So, you didn't confess to him?

 **Prompto:** Do i still need to? :/

 **Luna:** Yes, trust me

 **Prompto:** Pretty vague luna but okay…

 **Luna:** Prompto please

 **Luna:**  I'll sick pryna on you if you don't

 **Prompto:** Pleaaase she loves me

 **Luna:** We'll see about that…. Jk

 **Luna:** Oh, i gotta go, see you at the stream okay!

 **Prompto** : Byeeeee~

 

After his goodbye text, Prompto turned off his screen, actually paying attention to the mindless chatter of the podcast he was watching. Well, at least trying to pay attention.

He may have spent a good portion of the early afternoon trying to figure a good way to tell Noct his feelings. It wasn't something he was used to thinking about, because he usually focused on hiding his feelings. But, Luna and Cindy were expectant of him.

He debated asking his friends how they managed to get feelings across. How they ended up together, because apparently they were all good enough to get the one they love.

He remembered Aranea telling him how she and Cindy had a nice long chat. It was maybe the best idea, but considering how awkward both he and Noct were about feelings, that chat would probably end up going nowhere.

Ravus was, maybe the best person to ask. Through Luna’s hints he gathered that he and Ignis had a similar “will they, won't they” relationship until he got the nerve to do so. But asking Ravus was… not something he was gonna try to do.

He was sure Luna would give him details about it, she was a blabbermouth at the best of times, but usually kept other's secrets well. He would try also asking her for advice, but she and Nyx seemed to be very blunt and have no problems getting together. She wasn't really a option for this.

He could also go to Gladio for advice, though, the thought of that only gave to terrifying him. What of Gladio liked Noctis too, what if he only got beat up for liking Noct.

“Prom…” Prompto snapped his head up, looking to Noct who interrupted his brainstorming session.

“What's up? I thought you were gonna sleep all day?” Prompto laughed a little forced. He examined his friend, he obviously was still planning on sleeping all day, he had his comforter wrapped around his shoulders and a sleep riddle face.

“Too loud,” he mumbled, going to move closer to the couch, sitting in Prompto’s personal bubble.

“Oh, sorry,” Prompto reached for the remote to turn the tv down, he was sure the podcast was at a reasonable level, and even still, Noct’s door was closed, and he knew his friend to be quite the heavy sleeper.

Noct cuddled into Prompto, picking up his feet, essentially mimicking their positions the day Prompto got trapped to the couch, before Noct had pinned him that is. Prompto could feel his heart race, heat pooling into his face.

It was, strange, Noct was never the one to cuddle up to Prompto, sure he would react to his movements, but nothing ever like this. And maybe he liked it more than he should have, having him be this close felt like home, gave him such a warm feeling in his heart. And maybe he leaned into it, cuddling closer, to welcome him in. And maybe after a few seconds he let them adjust themselves to lay across the couch to snuggle together.

“You have a perfectly good _king_ sized bed and yet you like sleeping on the couch,” Prompto laughed, trying to make light of the situation. Surely this was just because they were used to this, all the comfort and cuddling, maybe Noct just thought Prompto an oversized stuffed toy.

Noct mumbled something back, his face was pressed into Prompto's chest. He was slightly afraid that he could hear how his heart threatened to explode, but he didn't call attention to it, he didn't even think it was weird that Prompto voice shook every time he spoke.

“What?” Prompto chuckled, trying to get his friend to speak, feeling that intimacy would probably lessen if they could joke around while positioned like this.

Noct was really committed to his resolve, he didn't respond, and Prompto felt his weight press into him. He just let out a long sigh, Noct definitely wasn't going to be up for a while, he was trapped again, and this time it was his own stupid fault for making them comfy in this position. He did necessarily regret it, but it would be harder to get out since it was virtually impossible to lift Noct. Which meant getting ready to leave for the stream was gonna be quite the hassle.

“Hey Noct?” Prompto called out after a while, testing to see if Noct would respond. When he didn’t after Prompto waited a minute or two, there was something that made him brave. He stared up to the ceiling, “Noct, I really want you to know something,” he said to his sleeping friend, sure this probably wasn’t the best time to confess, but it was casual, everything they had done until now was casual. “Noct,” He started again, his friend still felt asleep, “Noct, I really like you,” he paused, maybe hoping for a reaction, but also really hoping he was still asleep, “...And by ‘I like you’ it’s not like the, oh we’re such good friends, I think I mean…. I lo-”

Noct started to stir on his chest, making Prompto freeze, he looked down to his friend, his eyes were still closed, breathing still rested and relaxed. He let out a sigh, sure he knew what he was about to say, but was it really that? It certainly felt like that, but to say it out loud before he knew if Noct even felt the same. He closed his eyes, trying to relax. Soon after matching his breathing to Noct’s, he soon fell asleep.

 

It was maybe and an hour or two when Prompto awoke again. Noct was sitting up right eating a bowl of cereal watching a let’s play, when he saw Prompto stir he smiled, “Mornin,” he greeted.

Prompto rubbed sleep off his eyes, grabbing for his phone, looking at the time,“Afternoon, actually,” He let out a small laugh, looking to Noct, “Sleep well?”

Noct’s smile turned into a smirk, “Y’know if the whole photography thing doesn’t work you’ll have a great future as a pillow.”

Prompto let out a noise of offense, “Noct I am _insulted_!”

Noct just responded with a laugh and went back to eating, Prompto pouted on the couch for a few seconds, before looking at the time once more, “Oh, shit, I gotta start getting ready!”

“Going somewhere again?” Noct’s voice sounded sad when he asked.

“Yeah, study group thing, wish I could chill today though,” Prompto sighed, getting off the couch and heading to take a shower, “I’ll be sure to bring you back a snack or something.”

“You promised,” Noct laughed.

 

~~~

“Hey guys!” Prompto greeted walking into the studio, honestly everyone, but Ravus waved back at him. There were more people here than usual, Luna’s new boyfriend, Nyx, was there along with two others.

One girl with a messy brown haired bun, who was speaking to Aranea, and one, stocky guy, who was also a brunet, standing next to her. (Why were there so many brunettes?) As usual, Ravus was setting up the laptop to stream, and Luna and Cindy were decorating the space for the anniversary festivities. Both Nyx and the other two brunettes walked toward him after he entered and started grabbing things from his bag. “So this is the kid,” the woman said, she stuck out her hand toward Prompto, “Hey, I’m Crowe, a pleasure.”

Prompto took the hand and shook it, introducing himself as well, “I’ve seen your dances online, you’re like so awesome.”

Once the handshake was down, Crowe wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, her face tinged with something between smugness and shyness, “Aw, thanks.”

The stocky guy next to Crowe shot his hand out as well, “Libertus,” he said, smiling, and Prompto almost whimpered in the almost too firm of a handshake. Which he met with a laugh, nudging Nyx and saying something something softly in his ear, Nyx smiled back at him.

“I’m serious, Libertus, deadly serious,” Nyx responded to an unheard question.

Prompto shook off his hand, making sure it still could move, and started talking with them for a bit before Ravus stood and announced that the stream was ready to go. Prompto slipped on his mask, and went to join the others in front of the camera. Everyone did their usual greeting, saying hello to the chat once they started popping up. Luna called the chat to order as usual, introducing their guests, and told them of the special stream. The chat was obviously overjoyed and started suggesting dances and challenges to do. There was a lot who would wear today’s special outfit, Aranea had found it online and said it would be great for today’s celebration. The only downside was that the person who picked to wear it couldn’t dance for the day. Chat was really interested, and everyone went to pull lots. Aranea smiled and hummed a little fanfare song, after it turned out Nyx was the one to wear the outfit. She left off camera to rummage in her bag, coming back with what looked like a gray sweater.

“What is that?” Nyx asked taking the item from her.

“A little gift for chat,” She winked, sitting back down.

Nyx stood and unraveled the ‘sweater’ everyone’s eyes going wide with shock, “No, fucking way,” he grinned, but it wasn’t happy. The ‘sweater’ was barely a sweater, the sweater part was mostly in front, the back was barely a back, only seeming to cover a small portion of the butt. “There's no way I’m wearing this.”

             “You pulled the lot for it. C’mon who are we to crash the stream and immediately ruin it cause we don't wanna do something,” Libertus was smiling up at Nyx who returned the look with a ‘I’m gonna kill you’ look.

He looked to Crowe who was shrugging, “I mean, it's all fair, love, and war,” she quipped.

              Nyx sighed loudly and leaned down to meet the camera, “okay, for you guys,” and went to got change in the bathrooms connected to the studio.

Aranea was smiling at Luna whose face had turn a delicate red. “I have more, if you want to join him,” she joked, Luna looked at her with a stern face, yet the blush was still there.

Prompto looked to Ravus who was not acknowledging his sister, “Shall we get suggestions while we wait?” he asked, but the question sounded more like a demand.

Prompto giggled softly under the mask, it was one thing to see him subject to the poor luck of the lots, but him to see others, especially his Sister’s boyfriend, was something all together. They started reading chat and Crowe picked out a dance for her and Libertus to do. It was some dubstep sounding song that Prompto recognized to be Luvatory (the actual spelling of the song is so annoying.)

After they were done they heard the bathroom door open. Luna whipped her head around to see Nyx so fast, Prompto was pretty sure she got whiplash. He stepped out gingerly, trying to cover bits that he was a little afraid might slip out. “I cannot, believe, I am wearing this,” He said, and if there were ever a time to see Nyx vulnerable and flustered, now was the time.

Libertus left out a long wolf whistle and Nyx replied with a swift middle finger. Ravus was looking at Luna, and reaching a hand for her jaw. Aranea was reading chat, “Hey, they wanna see too,” she said to Nyx, who made his way over, Luna’s head was glued to his movements, she was definitely ogling him.

“Well,” He said slightly posing, “How’s it look?”

Chat was overly please, there was so many heart emojis being spammed in chat and few requests for who also should be in the sweaters. Aranea looked to Ravus with an expectant smile, Ravus returned the look with a death glare, and she backed off a little. “So, what am I in charge of chat now? There is no way I am gonna dance in this thing.” Nyx said sitting, getting himself comfortable while also covering parts that need to be covered

“I guess, I don’t think Luna’s going anywhere either,” Aranea laughed seeing the dumbfounded look on Luna’s face, she looked like she wanted something but also afraid of being yelled at for touching him. It was best to just leave it like that.

“Hey, Luns, eyes are up here,” Nyx joked, trying to get her attention off his thighs, Luna barely listened and looked up with a sheepish smile.

There were a lot of dances after that, Nyx was calling out a lot of what the chat was thinking they do, Prompto had been in and out of some dances, and was very happy when he got to dance with Crowe and Libertus, they were really awesome and their style was more b-boy style than anything. He and Ravus were asked to dance some of the classic ones dancers like were known for. One of them being a song called, PonPonPon. It was a fairly easily song to dance to, there were at least two choreography variants that they could go with. But even then the hardly varied from each other. Everyone was still watching chat while he and Ravus were dancing to the song. There was a move during the breakdown that essentially had them move their bodies really quick to the beat, and while doing that, Prompto felt the elastic of the mask break and loosen around his face. He let out a small noise as the mask started to fall.

Ravus noticed Immediately and made him turn around, and shield him from the camera as fast as possible, everyone else turned around the split second they saw Ravus do so, and Cindy manage to thrown sweater over Prompto’s head.

The mask fell and the stream went dark.

Nyx stayed by the computer making some music by humming so it wasn’t absolutely quiet and eerie. They moved Prompto out of the camera’s frame and removed the sweater. Prompto was still freaked out like he didn’t know what happened, Aranea brought the mask over to him, “Elastic’s broken,” she said handing it over.

“Do you have something else to use today?” Ravus asked, Prompto nodded in response, and Cindy went immediately to his bag and brought out one of the half masks he was glad to have packed.

Prompto started to put it on, “Everything okay over there?” Nyx called out, looking up from the laptop.

“Yep, everything’s good!” Aranea gave a thumbs up, to signal the stream was ready to go live again.

Everyone gathered in front of the camera, and the chat was going wild, some claiming to have seen P-to’s face, more excited that they’d get to see it now that the mask was gone and others just whining that they missed it. When Prompto hopped on, the chat was unanimously annoyed that he had a spare mask to wear. “Sorry about that,” Aranea said, taking the lead because with Nyx in the ridiculous thing he was wearing, Luna was unable to focus, “We’re good now though.”

The chat was not good, Prompto was getting worried that they would pressure him into going without, he was worried if Noct ever saw this, it would be a shitty way to find out. “We’re not going to make P-to dance without his mask,” Aranea was responding to the chat, “If we wanted him to go without, we would’ve done it by now. No, I know this is the anniversary stream, but we have to respect his privacy.”

Prompto was feeling a little anxious, and found it better to just scoot off camera near his things. Once out of frame, Prompto took off his mask to let himself breathe, that split second of panic had really riled him up, he really felt that he would have fainted had he stayed on longer. He heard his phone buzzing in his bag and decided that since he wasn't going to be on camera for a while he could probably check what it was.

He really wish he hadn’t, sure his dance twitter was blowing up, but once he opened the notifications, he saw he had a direct message from someone, and decided to check it.

 **NoctGar:** Prompto?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Ignore that this chapter was published at 2am)  
> But thanks everyone for reading!  
> I've been trying to think how this chapter would go for the longest time and I'm finally happy with the end result.  
> Yeah there are probably some really bad grammar mistakes but I'll try to fix those as best I can with edits.  
> That also counted as a confession right? Right?  
> Nyx is totally wearing a Virgin Killing sweater and don't blame me for that it was totally random, bless random number generators.
> 
> As always comments and kudos are met with love! It means the world that you all like this!  
> If you want to support me in anyway, you can follow me on tumblr @earltealord


	10. Heart Beats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto felt like he was going to explode. He read the message over and over, even though there was nothing but his name plastered on screen. Was Noct watching? Had he finally figured out? What did this mean now? Was he mad? He threw his phone back into his bag and looked for Cindy to help him. Once she had noticed, she ran over, and knelt down next to him, “Hey you okay hun?”

Prompto felt like he was going to explode. He read the message over and over, even though there was nothing but his name plastered on screen. Was Noct watching? Had he finally figured out? What did this mean now? Was he mad? He threw his phone back into his bag and looked for Cindy to help him. Once she had noticed, she ran over, and knelt down next to him, “Hey you okay hun?”

Prompto was making strangled noises from his mouth and pointed to his phone, Cindy picked it up, “Oh shit,” she said almost immediately once she saw the message, she looked back to Prompto setting the phone back in his bag, “Luna, I need you over here for a sec, darlin’, please.”

Luna appeared within few seconds, also kneeling to see what was wrong with Prompto. He may have been overreacting, but with the nerves of the mask falling off, and his whole secret ruined, and now Noctis potentially-no-most definitely finding out, there was maybe a panic attack threatening to explode within him.

“Prompto, breathe,” Luna said putting soft hands on his, that were currently bunching the fabric of his sweats.

He tried to follow suit, listening to Luna’s instructions, but it was so hard. He only stared at her face, until she spoke his name again, and his eyes flickered  down to his legs and then back up to her face. At least he was on the floor so collapsing wasn’t a thing that was going to happen. Cindy was still nearby, trying to clear the notifications, and turn them all off all together on his phone. Trying to take a trigger out of the situation. “You don’t have to go back on, you can stay right here, once we’re done we can talk more okay?” Luna tried to ground him, her voice soothing and nice, definitely something Prompto needed right now.

“I can stay with you hon’, if it helps?” Cindy suggested, looking to Luna who nodded.

“You can stay, and listen to relaxing music, don’t worry about anything else but breathing okay? A slow in-” Luna took a deep breathe, Prompto tried to mimic again, “Good, and now out-” she spoke exhaling.

Prompto tried again, breathing in and counting to four, then out and counting to four, it sure enough helped him calm down little by little. True to her word, once Luna said she had to go back to at least explain what happened, Cindy stayed right by him, letting him borrow her headphones, and he zoned out listening to music on his phone. 

The stream didn’t last too much longer, and Luna was back over in no time to check on Prompto. Seeing her reappear, he plucked out his headphones and look at her, “You alright now?” She asked softly with a smile, he responded with a nod.

But the message came back to his mind, “Uh…. actually,” he looked to Cindy, then to his phone in his hand. 

“If it’s just fans don’t worry about it, they’ll forget about in a day,” Luna said, waving her hand, trying to play it off, but that wasn’t what Prompto was worried about.

“No, I… got a message from Noctis,” Luna’s eyebrows perked up, “He messaged ‘P-to- actually…. I think, he was watching the stream…” He started feeling the slight panic, because Noctis was impossible to predict at this point, sure he and ‘P-to’ had become friends, but he still had a crush on the dancer, so there was bound to be anger for Prompto tricking him.

He started fiddling with the hem of his tank top, “Prompto,” Luna let out a concerned sigh, kneeling down to him once more, “Are you afraid of him right now?” Prompto nodded, “Do you feel safe going home?” he shook his head no, Luna let out a disgruntled hum.

“You can stay with us for the night,” Cindy pitched in, slinging an arm around his shoulders, “Have a sleep over, be like old times, right hun?” 

Prompto smiled slightly at Cindy, Luna nodded and helped him stand, “Promise you two will talk okay? I understand you’re panicked, but you can’t avoid this now.” Luna informed, she gave his hand a tight squeeze of reassurance. 

They others were heading over, all checking to make sure he was okay, Nyx was changed out of the sweater, so it wasn’t hard to stare at him as he grabbed Prompto’s shoulder to offer comfort. The comfort session didn’t last too long, and they all headed home, Prompto slipping quietly in the backseat of Aranea’s car. “Wanna get something quick for dinner?” Aranea asked when they were on the road, the questioned seemed directed toward Cindy, but she didn’t answer so Prompto perked up from the backseat.

“Uh, no. I’m not really hungry…” the was a weird void that usually came after panic attacks where he didn’t want to do anything but sleep. 

“C’mon, food’ll do you good,” Aranea replied, there was a smiled to the sentence, “I know you’re on a diet yet, but I think something homey or greasy would help.”

“We could go to a diner,” Cindy shifted in her seat, “That way you can get whatever suits your fancy.”

Prompto nodded, “A-alright, I guess.” and Aranea told Cindy to punch in directions to the nearest diner on their way home.

~~~

Noctis was waiting up restlessly for his friend to return, he wanted a confirmation, he wanted answers. He felt so dumb for not realizing it sooner, how could he have not recognized that his long term best friend, and actual crush was the dancer he developed a crush for. He was so dumb, he couldn’t believe it. He needed to see Prompto.

After his mask fell off on, Noctis was one of the few to catch his face, the realization of it all hitting him like a bus, or a truck, or something really large that would make a dense brain like his start thinking normally. And to think, he basically told the dancer guy about his crush, to think he called his almost indigo eyes ‘pretty’, to be so dumb to not recognize your own best friends eyes. 

He had been waiting up for a few hours and Prompto hadn’t returned yet, if anything he was getting  a little worried. It was nothing right? He would be home in no time, there would be no reason to avoid him, at least he didn’t think there was. 

 

**Noct-ass:** Hey so

**Noct-ass:** Wait, why is my name Noct-ass?

**Gladi-no:** I have no clue

**Specky:** Was there something important you wished to discuss?

**Luna:** I didn’t get a fun nickname….

**[Bae-vus set Luna’s nickname to Luna-thigh-ya]**

**Gladio-no:** Do we want to kno?

**Bae-vus:** No.

**[Luna-thigh-ya set her nickname to Luns]**

**Luns:** tell the whole world why don’t you

**Specky:** Noct, you wanted to say something,

**Noct-ass:** Oh right

**Noct-ass:** So, Prompto hasn’t come home yet

**Noct-ass:** did anyone see him? He hasn’t called or texted me

**[Luns set Noct-ass’ nickname to Dumb]**

**Dumb:** Why?!

**Luns:** You know that he has anxiety right? Why on Titan’s green Eos, would you message him that you found out his secret mid stream! Where he was feeling very vulnerable!

**Gladi-no:** Oh, Noct finally figured it out

**Specky:** Did something happen to Prompto on stream?

**Bae-vus:** His mask fell off during a dance. We were able to cover him and cut the stream. But there were still people who claimed to have saw. 

**Gladi-no:** Did it really take ya until he legit took off that mask?

**Dumb:** I…

**[Gladi-no set Dumb’s nickname to Really Dumb]**

**Really Dumb:** Oh come on, was I the only one who didn’t know??

**Luns:** yes, one of the only ones in his close circle

**Luns:** It baffles me how you didn’t realize that

**Luns:** You have a crush on him too! Noctis

**Really Dumb:** I….

**Bae-vus:** Did you not question to yourself why you felt such an attachment to someone you “never met”?

**Specky:** There is a chance you consciously didn’t realize, but something in your mind made the connection.

**Really Dumb:** What do you mean?

**Really Dumb:** like, my mind knew he was Prompto but like, i did’t acknowledge it?

**Really Dumb:** **didn’t

**Specky:** Essentially, it does baffle me that you didn’t see the obvious signs and put two and two together.

**Specky:** It would have been easier to confess altogether

**Luns:** That reminds me…. You dmed him right?

**Luns:** He told me you told him you liked someone

**Really Dumb:** Well, to be fair I, 

**Luns:** Noctis.

**Really Dumb:** Luna, this was before I knew it was him

**Really Dumb:** Also, can we stop yelling at me

**Really Dumb:** My friend is missing

**Luns:** He’s not missing, he’s with Cindy and Aranea

**Really Dumb:** Why?

**[Specky set Really Dumb’s nickname to Incredibly Dumb]**

**Incredibly Dumb:** Ignis not you too

**Specky:** Your ignorance can only go so far Noctis

**Incredibly Dumb:** I’m just worried and confused okay

**Luns:** Is there something to be confused about?

**Bae-vus:** They both probably haven’t said anything

**Luna:** omg

**Incredibly Dumb:** Am I missing soemthing?

**[Bae-vus set Incredibly Dumb’s nickname to Noctis]**

**Noctis:** Is this an Insult?

**Noctis:** Ravus, that’s rude

**Noctis:** How does ignis like you, you’re really mean

**Specky:** Please tell me you’ll talk to him when he gets back to your apartment

**Specky:** and talking means “talking” Noctis, no shutting down mid conversation

**Luns:** It’s gonna be hard, for both of you okay

**Gladi-no:** I’m sure Prompto is just as confused

**Bae-vus:** Please don’t ruin anything.

**Noctis:** OKay, I’ll try

 

Noctis sighed setting his phone down, Prompto wasn’t coming home tonight, he was totally freaked out. Sure, maybe he was a little mad that his best friend didn’t tell him anything about the hobby. And yeah,  he was a little irritated that everyone else but him new. He was embarrassed for basically blurting out stupid things he liked about the dancer not even realizing that it was his friend. He wasn’t sure how to feel about it now, Prompto said he liked someone too, so it wasn’t like he had a chance. He didn’t mention anything when they fell asleep on the couch, he didn’t say anything when he suggested they take naps together, he didn’t even think to blush or mention anything when he mentioned Noct’s bed, or the breakfasts that he would make, or how he was always willing to snuggle or cuddle, like it was nothing.

Was all that really nothing? 

Noct felt heartache stirring in his chest, he really wanted to see Prompto. To get stuff off his chest and clear the air, if Prompto didn’t like him too, that was fine. There were plenty of over fish in the sea, Noctis knew that was a stupid saying, but he really deliberated on becoming an old fishing hermit if things didn’t go well. 

There was something else, another emotion that welled, was it anger, pettiness, Noct didn’t know. But his friend, was lying to him. Keeping a secret from him, making him look like a lovesick idiot that couldn’t recognize his own best friend. He may have let too many of those thoughts in.

 

~~~

“Sorry hun, I know it’s not the biggest place,” Cindy set extra blankets on the small couch in their livingroom. 

Cindy and Aranea’s place was a retro looking one bedroom apartment, not something quite as small as a studio, but something that was at least as big as the living room and kitchen combined of his and Noct’s place. Prompt sat on the couch, he had managed to eat some dinner, even if it was just a small stack of pancakes that Aranea paid for, but he did feel a little better. “No, it’s fine,” He smiled, he really didn’t deserve any of the kindness they were showing him, he was trying to make as little nuisance as possible and kept most of his stuff near him, or piled neatly in a corner. 

“You gonna be okay?’ Aranea asked, leaning over the top of the couch, she was already dressed down in some casual looking pyjamas.

Prompto nodded, “I think so? I mean, I could be overreacting and he could have just been joking... “ he sighed, “I don’t know, what if he’s actually mad?”

“Well, finding out your friend is your crush isn’t really something to get mad over,” Aranea laughed, “Have you called him to let him know where you are? I’m sure he’s worried sick.”

“Ah…” Prompto let out, “No… I’m a little afraid to talk to him right now.”

“I can call him if yo-” Cindy started to say but they were all interrupted by Prompto’s ringtone.

They looked at the phone for a while, before Prompto slowly went to see who it was, he threw the phone directly to Aranea. “Oh speak of the devil,” she swiped the phone and brought it up to her ear, mimicking her best secretary voice, “Prompto’s phone, this is Aranea speaking, how may I help you?”

“Hey, is Prompto there?” Prompto heard Noct’s voice on the other line.

Aranea looked to Prompto, but he shook his head immediately, “I’m sorry, it seems Prompto is out of the office currently, but I can take a message,” she continued on with the lame joke.

“I, what? Luna said he would be with you guys,” Noct sounded irritated.

Aranea sighed, “Seems like you just don’t get my humor, yeah, no, Prompto’s here with us.”

“Can I talk to him?”

“Well….” Aranea drawled out, and looked to Prompto again, “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now….”

“Why not?” that was anger.

“Well, I assume you know he’s had a rough night, poor kid is about to pass out,” Aranea shot back just as annoyed.

“I.. Is he okay?” 

Aranea sighed once more, “Yes, he’s fine, well… physically, at least, he might need a day to gather back whatever strength he has to wanna talk to you okay?”

“Oh….kay”

There was a long silence and Aranea was getting impatient waiting for him to speak again, “What’s that? Tell him you love him and goodnight? Will do, byyeee” Aranea said trying to end the awkwardness on the other line.

And before she hung up Prompto heard a “No wait-” from Noct and Aranea handed him his phone.

“That could have gone smoother,” she commented putting hands on her hips, “Well, that was enough awkwardness for night.”

Cindy was giving her a look, “What?” Aranea questioned looking back at Cindy.

“G’night, hun,” Cindy said to Prompto, and walked to there room taking Aranea’s hand and dragging her back. Prompto smiled softly, Aranea was probably going to get scolded. 

He laid back onto the couch, pulling one of the spare blankets on top of him, today was a really weird day. To think he had started off almost confessing to Noct and now was avoiding him altogether. He shifted to lay on his side, the couch was lumpy and sticking into his side, it was going to be an uncomfortable sleep no matter what.

Prompto had managed to fall asleep on the couch, even if there was a piece of the frame sticking into his side whenever he adjusted. Perhaps the anxiety had taken all of his energy and left him exhausted, whatever it was he was happy he was able to sleep peacefully. 

 

He awoke the next morning to the smell of bacon and eggs, a homey smelling type breakfast he hadn’t had in a very long time. He felt someone touch his shoulder to wake him and he opened his eyes to check, “Oh, you’re up,” Aranea smiled, she had a coffee mug in her hand, it was weird seeing her without makeup for once, she actually had some natural freckles like he did. “Wanted to know if and how you like your coffee.”

Prompto sat up, stretching out the sore spot their couch had made on his back, “Uh, with lots of creamer,” he said yawning.

“Sweet tooth, huh?” Aranea laughed and went back to the kitchen, he heard the sound of liquid being poured into a cup.

Cindy peered over the counter, “G’mornin’ hun, there’s some food on the table if you wanna get up.”

Prompto nodded, and stood from the couch, his friends were so nice to be doing this for him. He tried not to stare into the kitchen seeing Aranea and Cindy flirt while they were in there, in some ways it made him happy to see Cindy this happy. She definitely deserved it, being the kindest person he’s known next to Luna now, and having been virtually orphaned when her parents died in a car accident. She didn’t let it affect her outward mood thought, and did everything she could to have others be happy. 

But of course, the was a little jealousy, and maybe not even that perse. But some emotion that Prompto had while staring that made him wish he wasn’t such a coward. That he would be able to stand in their kitchen in pjs while kissing and flirting with Noct. He looked down to his plate, it was a weird feeling to be getting and he really wished that he could fight it, that dream was probably all but crushed. Noct would probably want Prompto to move out, or like change schools or classes or something where he didn’t have to see him. He would definitely need to figure something out, where he was going to stay if that did happen. He spent the remainder of his breakfast thinking about where he would move.

 

The rest of the day was uneventful, he had somehow convinced both Aranea and Cindy to let him stay one more night. They’d bee a little hesitant because they all had classes the next morning, but Prompto said he would go homes right class, as much as it pained him to say. He curled up on the couch after He, Cindy, and Aranea had bummed around watching movies for a good portion of the day. It was early yet, but both of his friends had even earlier classes than he did in the morning so they suggested he go to sleep. 

If he was honest, he really wanted to skip class, he had a few that he and Noct shared and he was still a little freaked out about trying to say something or really anything to him. He hadn’t touched his phone all day, purposely turning it off to avoid seeing any notifications. Truthfully he felt a little guilty virtually ghosting his best friend, but what was he supposed to do?

He heard all of his friends echoing into his mind telling him to just talk to him.

He gave in, picking up his phone, and waiting for it to turn on. He definitely didn’t know what he was going to say, or find on his phone. He didn’t want to tell Noct that he was staying over again, maybe that hadn’t crossed his mind, but he was sure Noct wouldn’t care. Or at least, as he waited for his phone to load, what he thought.

Text notifications from Noctis were coming lightning fast. It spanned from actual questions if he was coming home and if he was still at Cindy’s, to more concern of how he was feeling, and maybe slight annoyance. Prompto sat staring at his phone for a while before gathering somewhat of a nerve to type something. 

**Prompto:** |ω・｀)ノ

There was a few moments where Prompto regretted it, he was afraid of his friend yelling at him.

**Noct:** Prompto!

**Prompto:** |･ω･`*)ッ

**Noct:** dude, I thought you were dead

**Noct:** Where are you? Why aren’t you home?

**Prompto:** |ω･`)

**Noct:** What are you doing?

**Prompto:** ๑•́ㅿ•̀๑) sorry

**Noct:** Prompto

**Prompto:** ((ﾟ□ﾟ;))

**Noct:** Prompto please

**Prompto:** (ノдヽ)

**Noct:** stop

**Noct:** I want to talk to you

**Prompto:** (ﾟヘﾟ)？

Prompto felt his phone start to vibrate as Noct’s contact picture filled the screen, he wasn’t really one for calling and usually texted others when he needed something, so Noctis calling him was a very weird thing. Although he didn’t really lend a hand to it responding quickly with different emojis only probably made Noctis even more annoyed with him. He stared at the caller ID for a while before finally swiping to answer it. He didn’t say anything right away and just listened for Noctis on the other line.

“Prompto?” Noct asked, he sounded just as nervous as Prompto felt.

Prompto hummed a very short quiet noise of approval. 

“Where are you?” Noct asked, his voice was more concerned this time.

Prompto cleared his throat some, “Uh, at Cindy and Aranea’s yet…”

“Are you okay?” more concern

“Mmhmm! Yeah, I think so,” so Prompto was lying a little, but he had a knack for stuffing emotions down.

 

“Prompto,” Noct’s voice was stern, apparently attuned enough to know he was lying.

“Yes?” Prompto breathed, he wasn’t looking forward to getting yelled at.

“I want to talk to you,” Noct pleaded.

“We’re… uh, talking right now right?” Prompto tried to laugh, but it only came out as a pathetic wheeze. 

“No, tomorrow, after class, please.”

“Ah….” Prompto let out, his voice probably shaking with nerves.

“I promise I’m not mad.” Noct sounded mad.

“Um…” Prompto deliberated, talking to him immediately after class probably wasn’t a good idea, but maybe he could stall him for a bit. “Maybe not, like immediately after class, I, uh have a few things I need to talk to the professor about.”

“After school then?” 

“Yeah, that’d work…” Prompto trailed off, not that it was any better, but it would at least give him time to think of what to say. “Oh, hey could you do me a favor?”

“Hmm?”

“Could you bring my backpack with you, I’m an idiot and forgot I didn’t have it with me,” Prompto let out a genuine laugh now, the tension seemed to evaporate.

“Oh, yeah,” Noct laughed on the other side. “You are an idiot.” there was a weird affection.

“Thanks,” Prompto managed to smile.

“Hey Prom..?” Noct started again, the weird affection stayed.

“Yeah?”

“I…..” he started, there was a long pause, before he let out a tiny laugh, “Good night.”

“Night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy everyone! sorry for the delay in posting the chapter, I wanted to get this out sooner, but it's so hard trying to figure out what they want. I want to thank everyone for commenting and giving kudos and of course reading too! It really means the world that you all like this a lot!  
> I probably would have got this chapter out sooner if I hadn't stopped to go collect Nyx's Kukuri in the game last night, but yknow priorities.
> 
> If you want to support me in anyway you can follow me on tumblr @earltealord


	11. Beneath the Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was hard to focus on anything else that morning. When he arrived at campus 2 hours earlier than usual, Prompto was a mess of nerves. He had told Aranea and Cindy during the drive that he was going to talk to Noctis, confess to him and joked that he would subsequently die from nerves immediately after.

It was hard to focus on anything else that morning. When he arrived at campus 2 hours earlier than usual, Prompto was a mess of nerves. He had told Aranea and Cindy during the drive that he was going to talk to Noctis, confess to him and joked that he would subsequently die from nerves immediately after. They assured him that everything would be fine, that he and Noct would patch things up quick. (Aranea mentioning that he might even get a boyfriend after the talk, to which Prompto gave her a quick hit on the shoulder.)

Despite their attempts to calm and comfort, Prompto was still a nervous wreck sitting on the floor outside his classroom. He, theoretically, could skip class and avoid the talk all together, and the awkwardness of sitting next to Noctis for two, hour long classes. He was also slightly hoping Noctis would sleep through their early more schedule, knowing that since he wasn't there to help get him up, he'd probably sleep through his alarms.

It was hopeful, to say the least, but as more students gathered around the door as class got closer to starting, he saw his familiar raven haired friend and his heart sank. Sank only because he knew he was going to have to do this, sank because despite being mostly afraid of him, seeing his friend gave im the same feeling of home and security they've always shared. He didn't know what to do.

He stood up from the ground, and Noct had finally noticed him, he noticed how he hesitated to step forward, but did anyway, a small unreadable smile on his face. “Hey,” he said casually, he leaning in for something but Prompto didn't read what he wanted and pulled back, almost instantly.

“Hey,” Prompto tried to mimicking the casual tone as best he could.

When he looked back at Noctis he saw an exasperated look on his friend’s face, he scoffed to himself and walked in the classroom. He eyed Prompto, and he could see the confusion on his face when he gave a buffer seat between them. Despite feeling that homeness, he was still afraid to talk to him, he was afraid that his fidgeting would annoying his friend and cause him get angry. So, in response to the look her gave a small smile, sheepish and shy. As he sat down, Noct moved immediately next to him, forgoing any ideas of buffers or safe zones. “What….” Prompto started, he saw Noct handing him his backpack.

“Kinda hard to do class without your stuff, right?” Noct smirked, Prompto nodded, and took his bag setting it on the floor, to grab his books for the lesson.

Noct was acting strangely calm, perhaps he had forgotten all about everything. Prompto had only hoped the call late at night was just a fever dream. He wished everything since saturday night was just a blur of his imagination. It had to be, there would be no way Noctis would be acting this calm after Prompto essentially lied to him, even though he didn’t mean to. He was sorry, like unbelievably sorry, but to Noct he probably looked smug asshole, making fun of his obliviousness.

He couldn’t pay attention at all that class, between constant thoughts, and feeling their bodies really close, Prompto might have been having issues. He tried to keep calm by doodling on his page, or rocking a leg, but nothing was working. His next class was with Noctis as well, so the prolonged suffering of thinking about the situation they got themselves would only continue.

By the time class was done, Prompto was ready to run home, not back to the apartment, but back to his small bedroom of his parent’s house that was 5 miles from campus. The running would have done his mind some good, and he could probably hide easier if he was there. The only issue being, that his parents had sold the house once he graduated high school, so it was no longer a temporary safe space.

As they exited the classroom, Noctis was silent, he was mostly silent anyway, but they were usually shooting the shit about something or having a dumb talk about stuff. Today was a really weird day, and he didn’t know how to feel about it in the slightest. He only continued to contemplate, thinking about what the end of the day would bring.

The next few hours went by uneventful.

As the final few minutes of the day closed in, Prompto could feel several thousand metaphorical pounds weighing him down. The weight from his constant anxiety about the talk, what he was going to say, if he could say the other thing he desperate wanted to say, and needed to say, and if they could remain friends after all that, ran through his mind several times, like it was training to become an olympic sprinter.

Noct had told him to meet on the steps near the library, that they could meet there and go somewhere where they could talk. Prompto managed to delay him some more and told him to meet him at a park, one he frequented only because he danced there quite often. Noct seemed hesitant, but agreed anyway. Prompto wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Prompto had reached the park first, settling in the autumn air, on one of the many benches. He dug through gym bag for a second, pulling out his mask, the elastic still broken from saturday night. He spent some time fixing it and slipped it on testing to see if he could still use it. It was a little loose yet, but it held onto his face, not something he could dance with. He’d probably have to buy new elastic from a craft store. Noctis approached him shortly, his face was definitely confused seeing the mask affixed to his face again.

Prompto acknowledged him, and he noticed how easy it was to look at him like this, through the eyes of the mask, so Noct didn’t see his fear, or anxieties. There were a lot of reasons he decided to wear the mask in the first place, but all of them resounding within him as a way to hide his true feelings. “Prompto?” Noctis said slow, deliberate.

Prompto stood from the bench and approached him, nodding to affirm Noctis’ semi-question. He would admit that wearing the mask to keep from talking was a little weird, but he gestured to Noct for him to start. “I wanna see your face,” Noct demanded, and Prompto almost froze, so much for the security of the mask.

Noct had started reaching up, but Prompto stopped him, undoing the elastic to let the mask loosen around his face, he pulled it away slowly, giving Noct as sheepish smile, “tada~” he said quietly, trying to loosen the tension that somehow formed.

“Prom, listen, I..” Noct bit his lip, trying to think of what to say.

“Noct, I should be the one apologizing,” Prompto spoke, lowering the mask and his face, “I didn’t want to trick you like that, I should have told you like years ago.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Prompto’s face twisted in thought, “I didn’t want you to be embarassed of me I guess, the only reason I wore the stupid thing was to hide my face.” he looked up to Noctis, “Kids in our classes were a mix of the shittiest humans on the planet and the cruelest.”

“And you think I would have judged you for dancing to songs?” Noct asked.

“I-I don’t know, I mean you’re like a rich kid, son to a big shot CEO, if anything, people would make fun of you for being friends with me. I guess I was just afraid is all….” Prompto sighed, the admission to that was a lot easier than he thought it’d be.

“A you didn’t think to tell me when you found out I had a crush on him, well you,” the was a slight redness to his cheeks when he said that.

“I…” Prompto started, this was the part he was most afraid of.

“You?” Noctis urged.

“I…. I, I may have been a little happy…” Prompto stuttered through, gripping the mask a little tighter, “I was happy that maybe you could develop feelings for me too one day.”

“Too? One day? Wait-”

“Yeah, but you like Gladio now right, so like no harm no foul. I’m not gonna get weird about it,” Prompto tried to smile.

Noctis was looking at him dumbfounded, “Wait,” he said after staring for a while, “Gladio? I don’t like Gladio, who told you I liked Gladio?”

Prompto tilted his head, “Uh, you dmed me on twitter, the friend guy you have a crush on, Gladio’s the only one that makes sense.”

“There’s also you, you dummy,” Noctis’ words had a curtness to them, he was a little annoyed for sure.

“Huh?”

“I said there’s also you, you dummy,” Noct repeated, only exhaling and running a hand through his hair, “I told you, the guy I liked was a close friend, that we’ve been friends forever.”

“Yeah, I mean other than Ignis…. Gladio’s like a perfect fit.”

“Gladio’s like a brother to me,” Noct groaned, “I also told you he was pretty dense, remember.”

“I mean….” Prompto looked down then back at Noctis, he was staring at him intently. _Oh,_ the gears started turning in his mind. “Does that mean….?”

“I said your eyes were pretty, I told you I like your hips, I’m such an idiot for not realizing that damned dancer guy was you,” Noct said, he was halfway angry with himself and laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

“Yeah, well…” Prompto trailed off.

“It was always you okay,” Noctis said looking straight at him, his blush returning to his cheeks.

“How long?” Prompto asked, it was a weird question sure, and he, in no way, was allowed to be accusatory like this. But it felt like music to his ears.

“High school, I guess…” Noctis freely admitted staring off to the side.

“High school?” Prompto asked to confirm, “But what about Luna??”

“Luna really wasn’t…. Listen she figured that out by herself. She was kinda pushing me to confess to you for like 5 years now. I’m surprised you didn’t notice it earlier…” Noct trailed.

“You were all hot and bothered by her! How was I supposed to gauge anything?”

“Hot and bothered?”

“That time, when she whispered in your ear,” Prompto felt silly trying to derail the conversation, but it still felt like a dream, there was no way, the boy he liked since high school started to have feelings for him the same time Prompto had started developing feelings.

“Oh… no I…” Noctis looked away.

“Right, right the ear thing,” Prompto withdrew.

“Ear thing?” Noctis questioned.

“The… oversensitve ear thing… you told me about?”

“I don’t,” Noctis stopped.

“You don’t have an oversentive ear thing!?” Prompto flushed bright red.”S-So that  morning you….”

“I honestly….. Wanted you to…” Noctis smiled.

“Oh my god, where is this conversation going,” Prompto put his hands to cover his face.

“Well, you could start by telling me something,” Noctis said, it was so unfair how composed he was, when Prompto had spent all morning trying to keep from passing out due to nerves.

“Hmm?” Prompto hummed from behind his hands and the mask.

“Do you like me too?”

Prompto looked up, meeting eyes with Noctis, he was silent for a second, before nodded slightly, “Y-yeah, a lot dude.”

“How long?” Noctis mimcked his questiong from earlier.

“Same.”

“High school? Are you serious?” Noctis laughed, he rubbed the back of his neck, “how did we both…”

Prompto smiled and allowed himself to laugh too, it was all dumb.

“Hey,” Noctis started after a small bought of silence.

“Yeah?”

“Can I,” He started, but stopped suddenly.

“Yeah?” Prompto urged on, only assuming what he was going to say.

“Can we,” He corrected himself, “Can we, date or something?”

Prompto nodded, “Yeah,’ he inched himself closer.

Noct stared at him for a while, the silence grew for a while. “Can I…” he asked leaning in.

“Yeah,” Prompto responded moving to meet him, lips pressing against each other in a very timid motion.

Or at least it started like that, Noct was gentle at first, pulling Prompto up to meet him, and there was a soft press of lips. Prompto could feel the heat on his skin as Noct pressed into him, but as the kiss got longer Noctis pushed forward in a sloppy open mouth kiss that ended shortly with them both gasping and flushed. They laughed immediately afterward, and pressed their lips together once more.

“We should, probably get home.”

 

~~~

**[P-to set his name to Prompto]**

**Prompto:** So

 **Prompto:** Guess who has a boyfriend now?

 **Ari:** Ayyyyyyy

 **LuLu:** Congrats Prompto!

 **LuLu:** I’m laughing because Noctis just said the same thing in our group chat with Ignis and Gladio

 **CiCi:** See hun! Was that really all so bad!

 **Prompto:** No, dude, the only stupid thing was realizing how long we liked each other

 **Prompto:** Guys, why didn’t anyone say anything to me

 **LuLu:** Well, I was sworn to secrecy

 **Prompto:** LUNAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

 **LuLu:** He made me swear okay!

 **Prompto:** Cindy?

 **CiCi:** I thought y’all were together already, I was still kinda shocked when you kept saying you hadn't told him yet.

 **Ari:** Well, whatever is done is done now

 **Ari:** He has you and you have him

 **LuLu:** Noctis, is being weirdly romantic in our chat so I’m going to ignore him for a bit

 **Prompto:** You do realized who your brother is right?

**[Rae kicked Prompto from the chat]**

**[LuLu added Prompto to the chat]**

**LuLu:** Ravus don’t be rude

 **Ari:** Why is he always lurking?

 **LuLu:** He doesn’t like talking in two chats at once he and Ignis are like giving weird advice to Noctis,

 **LuLu:** To be honest I’m not even reading it anymore.

 **Prompto:** They’re secretly the grossest couple, omg

 **CiCi:** Oh, hun are you…. Quitting the dancing scene?

 **CiCi:** I was gonna ask why you changed your name?

 **Prompto:** Oh, nope, I um…. I’m probably gonna do like a birthday reveal thing next stream

 **LuLu:** Oh really? Because Noctis?

 **Prompto:** Sorta? I guess…. Also like half the chat saw my face anyway so…. Why hide it at this point

 **Ari:** Making progress at least

 **Ari:** that’s good

 **CiCi:** That’s great! I would miss you so much if you left

 **Prompto:** At this point, I would be kinda afraid to leave,

 **Prompto:** But like I’m probably not going to be dancing as much cause

 **Prompto:** Yknow…. New relationship and all

 **Prompto:** hahah Omg, gladio just kicked himself out of the other chat

 **LuLu:** What are they even?

 **Ari:** Now i’m just curious….

 **Prompto:** Luna please control your brother

 **LuLu:** I might be afraid to look….

 **Ari:** Omg, what is going on

**[Prompto added Noctis to the Chat]**

**Ari:** Yo?

**[Prompto set Noctis’ name to Bae]**

**Bae:** Prompto omg…

 **Prompto:** hehehe

**[LuLu set Bae’s name to Fish]**

**Fish:** Better?

 **Ari:** okay, can someone tell me about what going on in that other chat

 **Fish:** oh, yeah it started out fine

 **Fish:** then like Ignis mentioned like other stuff

 **Fish:** they got on a weird tangent about firsts

 **Fish:** and they started arguing about what their actual first time was

 **Ari:** First time being?

 **LuLu:** Hold on

**[LuLu kicked Rae from the Chat]**

**LuLu:** go ahead

 **Fish:** like yknow

 **Ari:** like seeeex?

 **Fish:** yeah…

 **Ari:** omg

 **Ari:** ooooooooooooooh my god

 **Fish:** Luna your brother is weird

 **LuLu:** no, I know….

 **Prompto:** he kept telling Noct to research too…

 **Fish:** Oh yeah

 **Ari:** Reasearch… what?

 **Fish:** Uh

 **Ari:** Oh my god

 **CiCi:** Why are they like this?

 **LuLu:** I wish I knew

 **LuLu:** and not to be weird tho…. But you two gotta…. Be careful and stuff

 **Prompto:** Luna

 **LuLu:** I know, just

 **Prompto:** Luna we just started dating

 **LuLu:** yeah well

 **Fish:** dude don’t even worry about ok

 **Prompto:** I was scared to even kiss him, I don’t think we’re gonna

 **Prompto:** like any of that for a while

 **Fish:** yeah….

 **Ari:** You two are surprisingly level headed

 **Ari:** …..

 **Ari:** You two did something already didn’t you

**[Fish left the chat]**

**Ari:** what was that about waiting?

 **Prompto:** Five years Aranea

 **Prompto:** like okay it was mostly kissing too, but yknow

 **Prompto:** Stuff came off

 **LuLu:** Don’t make me kick you

 **LuLu:** I’ve already removed myself from the other chat

 **Prompto:** I wasn’t gonna say anything

 **Prompto:** Aranea asked

 **Ari:** I did to be fair

 **Ari:** and his boyf ran away so, I don’t think it could be half as bad

 **CiCi:** Well, as long as you’re being safe hun

 **Prompto:** yeah no, I think going all the way scares the hell out of us

 **Prompto:** we’re probably not….

 **Prompto:** gonna for a while

 **Ari:** You don’t need to tell us when you do

 **Ari:** Just so you know

 **Prompto:** wasn’t planning on it

 **Ari:** Hey Luna is Ravus still on?

 **LuLu:** It looks like it, why?

 **Ari:** I’m gonna tease him for a bit, cause holy shit

 **LuLu:** Oh please don’t

 **Ari:** ….

 **Ari:** too late

 

“Are you gonna kick yourself from that chat ever? They’re still talking about it” Prompto laughed watching the text bubbles from Ravus and Ignis go back and forth. He was nestled into Noctis’ shoulder, cuddling after an all too comfortable bought of something they should have done way long ago.

Noctis laughed, “Nah, I think I should probably stop them soon enough, Luna said Ravus can get weird when he’s like that.

“How much you wanna bet they’re in the same room together?” Prompto smiled into his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“I don’t know, it is a weeknight…. 3 to 1 odds?”

“What do I get if I win?” Prompto smirked.

“Whatever you want, within reason… of course.” Noctis smiled, “And what do I get?”

“Me,” Prompto placed a kiss on his lips.

“Okay, but I have you already, that’s kinda a sad bet,” Noctis laughed after Prompto pulled away.

“Okay, fine,” Prompto grumbled, “How about…. I dance for you.”

“Huh?”

“Like I make a video for you, to tell my community how much I love you.” Prompto blushed, after he accidentally the “L” word.

“Love?” Noctis perked up, blue eyes smoldering into Prompto’s.

“Y-yeah….” there wasn’t any use denying it now.

“Alright,” Noctis agreed, smiling now, “Dance for me, then.”

“You don’t know if you even won the bet yet!” Prompto smiled, watching Noctis type in his phone.

After he waiting a few seconds he showed the phone to Prompto, obviously smug as ever. “So,” Noctis smiled.

“Prompto sighed, but he was still happy, “Alright pick a song then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah, the chapter title is totally from that one song from Persona 5 OST, which I totally listened to the entire time writing this chapter.  
> Also sorry for the delay, my internet went down and I was having some major issues trying to figure out how things would work, it got there tho  
> Also, sorry for grammar mistakes... I'll probably proof them like maybe later... I just wanted to get this out for you all.
> 
> As always, thank you so much for reading, commenting and for giving kudos! it means the world to me!  
> If you want to support me at all you can follow me on tumblr @earltealord


	12. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy endings

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this, why this one of all the song you could’ve pick,” Prompto glared at Noctis who was smirking behind the camera, “How do you even know this song anyway?”

Noctis stared at him blankly, “I saw Luna dancing to it once, thought you’d look cute.”

Prompto blushed, and scratched his cheek, “Yeah, well…. I was expecting something more lovey-dovey…” he said quietly.

Noctis laughed, “When have I been lovey-dovey?”

“All the time dude! Don’t even start….” Prompto stuck his tongue out at him

“Anyway, I think the camera all set up,” Noctis changed the subject, examining the camera set, “You ready?”

Prompto nodded, “ yeah, I guess?” he answered getting into position, "Shake it, take one," Then the music started

 

~~~

“Hey guys!” Prompto greeted walking into the dance studio with Noctis at his side, everyone was in their normal places but they had the added touch of adding blue and yellow streamers and balloons, “D’aww guys you shouldn’t have.” he blushed.

Cindy came up to him, giving him a big hug, “Happy birthday hun!” Cindy’s hugs were always a lot stronger than he imagined them to be, he gave a little whimper as she threatened to squeeze the life out from him.

“Thanks Cindy!” Prompto laughed, he could feel his feet lift off the ground, he was a little terrified, but she set him down quick enough.

“I hope you like sweets, Aranea and I keep getting the darn lot fer snacks,” Cindy pointed to a box, “Y’know I never thought I’d be buyin’ a chocobo themed birthday cake at my age.”

Prompto’s eyes lit up, “Really?” Cindy nodded escorting the boys over to a cake that had tiny frosting drawings of moogles and chocobos on it, as well as Chocobo cake toppers, in frosting was scrawled _Happy Birthday Promtoe_

Noctis stifled a laugh, “They misspelled your name.”

“Yeah, I tried to get them to fix it, but that would have costed an extra cake…. I didn’t want to go through the trouble. We’re gonna be eating it anyway.”

Prompto still had eyes on the cake, he felt  like he was about to cry, “It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”

“Hey,” Noct grumbled

“No, I mean you are too, but… this Noct, look, have you ever feasted your eyes on something so good, so pure.” Prompto gestured to the cake, Noct looked at him deadpan.

Cindy just laughed, “We can cake it up later, c’mon the stream is starting.” she gestured for the boys to follow as she walked over the set up.

“I was thinking of doing a dramatic reveal, like wearing my mask and BOOM! Suddenly my face,” Prompto explained to Noct and Cindy walking back over the the stream setup.

“Like some superhero revealing their true identity,” Noctis laughed.

“Yes, exactly, Doing what’s right for the people,” Prompto smiled wide, nudging shoulders together, scooping up his mask from his bag, before setting it down. Slipping it on before going to sit with the rest of the group.

Noct was on the other side of the camera, waiting for everyone to greet the chat, waiting for a little until there were a lot more people responding. He watched as Luna apologized for the stream the other week, how awkward and short it had been, Prompto offered up a display meaning that he was really sorry for everything, Noct couldn’t help but laugh seeing him scramble to show someway of being apologetic. Luna was also explaining today’s festivities, patting Prompto on the back and urging him to scoot forward. “And I believe P-to has a gift for you all for being so supportive of him last week,” She nodded at him, urging him to proceed.

Prompto had frozen up, whatever nerve he had before was going, and he was just sitting there staring at the computer like a robot. The rest of the group looked at each other, wondering if they should help him. Noct sighed, and walked around the other side of the camera, coming to Prompto’s side and lifting up the mask, kissing him square on the lips.

Prompto’s eyes were wide, cheeks coloring with a deep red, Noctis smirked and pulled away taking the mask with him, standing to walk off camera. Prompto was still in shock, but was still aware enough to hear Luna laugh. “That was really rude Noctis,” she scolded, folding her arms over her chest.

Noctis shrugged, “He needed a push.”

Cindy laughed, watching the chat, “They really love you hun!” she said to prompto who was still sitting in front of the camera, shyly waving to all the commenters that were flying by in chat.

“H-Hey everyone, thank you all for your support,” He spoke softly, smiling at the camera, trying to get used to being without his safety net. He was watching chat compliment him, slightly blushing as a few of the comments got slightly suggestive and were timed out immediately. But then there was a shift, asking about the person who had kissed him, Prompto looked up to Noct behind the camera. “Uh… that’s actually my boyfriend…” he answered chat, watching Noct perk up.

Chat went wild, asking to see him again, asking if Noct knew how to dance, asking if this was the person he’d mentioned all those weeks ago, asking how they got together. Basically asking almost everything. Prompto was doing his best to answer, looking around to the other, feeling a little bit like a one man show, that is until Noct plopped down next to him, Prompto laughed as he kissed his cheek and laced their fingers together, “Dude, you debut was supposed to be in the video.”

Noct didn’t seem to care, “Whoops,” he said with a lopsided smile, starting to read chat.

Luna laughed and called things to order asking for requests, making sure Prompto got spotlight since it was his birthday. Aranea went to grab something from her bag, coming back with a small crappy paper crown, no doubt from a fast food restaurant, “For the birthday boy,” She said in a voice fit for royalty, placing the crown on his head.

“Aranea you shouldn’t have,” Prompto laughed using his free hand to adjust the crown, it was a little silly but he appreciated the gesture.

“Oh but I did,” Aranea smiled, “I got a lot of stupid gifts for you, so there’s plenty more.”

“Good I can’t wait!”

~~~

Prompto had started uploading his most recent video. They had gotten home about 30 minutes ago from the stream and was still carrying way too much of Aranea’s stupid gag gifts, they had brought the chocobo cake home as well, there was only a few pieces missing after they had sung him happy birthday on stream. Noct was busy stuffing their treats into the fridge for later, before he came over the the couch where Prompto was sitting. “Almost done?” He peeked at the monitor, seeing his boyfriend type up the description in the text field.

“Yeah, just have to finish a few more things,” Prompto answered, looking up the Noct after finishing typing, “Why?”

“I forgot to give you your birthday present earlier,” Noct smiled.

“This isn’t like an… ‘I’m your present type of deal’ is it?” Prompto brought his mouth into a crooked smile.

“No,” Noct laughed, pulling out a medium sized box from behind him, “here.” he gestured the box toward him.

Prompto angled his laptop on his lap and took the box, peeling back the tape that held the box closed, it was like Noctis not to bother wrapping it, but still Prompto had no idea what it was. As he opened the box, he saw a few things waiting for him inside, one being a very expensive DSLR camera that he’s had his eyes on for the longest time, the other being a keychain that was a reference to a stupid inside joke they had together, and the last being an old polaroid of a younger them, back from high school. Prompto honed on the photo, “How did you…?”

“You gave me that, remember?” Noct smiled, “It was one of the first times we hung out.”

“Yeah,” Prompto laughed a tad, “So you’re regifting it?”

“No,” Noct took one of his hands, “It’s a reminder.”

“Of what?”

Noct just smiled and leaned forward to plant lips on his, Prompto was still slightly confused. “It’s when I realized how much I liked you.” he explained pulling away.

“Noct this is like from Freshman year,” Prompto breathed, cheeks flushed.

“Yeah.”

“Oh,” the blond’s eyes softened, he picked up the photo, examining it, it really seemed like forever ago.

“Hey,” Noct sad again after a comfortable silence has set.

“Yeah?”

“Happy Birthday Prompto.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your patience on this, it took me forever to get around to thing because I didn't want and know how to end this. Along with my busy schedule that kept me from writing for a few day, getting the last chapter together was a bit of a struggle. But here it is! I did it! Thank you all so much for reading, commenting and adding kudos, it means the world to mean that you like this! I cannot express how much it means to me. so i will continue to say thank you!
> 
> Late night edit (because a commenter brought this to my attention): I added lile one sentence in saying the song name, that was my bad i meant to mention it, but it slipped my mind!
> 
> if you wish to support me you can follow me on tumblr @earltealord


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